"You know what I've come for. If what you've got to tell me is as dire as it seems, then reaching my vault can only help in the long run. The reach and scope of your science has always been impressive, but there's a reason we've found common cause to work together in the past. We'll need your science and my magic in full measure before long, is my guess." Chamdar turned back and stepped into the threshold of the spiral stair which led down toward his destination. Over his shoulder, he beckoned to the sometimes friend, sometimes adversary. "Come, walk with me and explain what's happening here in your own house that has you so concerned."

Sirius hadn’t really been hesitant to join Chamdar, but rather was looking at his his own creations, wondering for the first time in centuries, what he was really accomplishing. Clone experiments had long since become a simple event for him. The days of planting secret dragon infused eggs and raising them into clones were long gone. A clone could be made in a matter of hours, or days if it needed to be more stable. Most of the ones in here had been old experiments, things he hadn’t wanted to part with.

He not so reluctantly stepped forward, coming to Chamdar’s side after a few paces. They were not far from Chamdar’s Vault, so Sirius took the time to explain Vera.

“The full story of my life with Vera is long and full of unimportant details, and even the version without details is fairly long. But it’s deeply intertwined with some of the greatest legends of this world, notably the Chiaria’s and the Red General Himself, Polaris Eridanus. We’ve all had interactions with Rhunerys Telaris, who is the one responsible for my existence. Although I believed myself born in the wilds of Holodrum, in fact I only ended up there by chance. I originally was being raised by….a future version of myself, at the time.” Sirius paused and shook his head. “It’s all very confusing and I’m not even sure that this story is accurate anymore, my personal timeline feels in flux, even if this world is supposedly on a fixed path. However, the long and short of it is, I grew up in a normal village and left it at 18, meeting Vera not long afterwards. I did not know who she was or where she came from, but we were able to survive together for a few years.” Sirius cleared his throat and interacted with another rune panel, continuing on the path down to the deepest levels of the east wing.

“It wasn’t long before Rhunerys returned to continue her manipulation. Davus Fulmen attacked both myself and Vera, and we were conveniently saved by Rhunerys. She tricked me then into believing it was our first time meeting, when in fact she was my true creator, and I believed it was that moment when Vera and I were granted immortality, from aging at least. As recent events have taught me, I can still physically die in a certain sense. I thought then that Vera too had been granted special powers, but I’m realizing now that not even Rhunerys understood Vera.” Sirius stopped Chamdar with a hand on the old man’s shoulder. “Chamdar. I’m not a good man. But I’m also not an evil one, not in totality. I’m a product of a witch interfering with a demon. I’ve hurt many and created abominations but I don’t wish this world to end. Vera wants to consume the land, she wants to take it for herself.”

Chamdar looked back at Sirius quizzically. He was no stranger to great evil trying to control the land, but even he seemed to understand what Sirius was trying to convey. Sirius removed his hand and they continued walking.

“Vera and I worked for Rhunerys for 400 years, doing things I’ve long since removed from my own memory and stored in the lab. It in AD-2000, on our final mission, when we were sent back in time to AD-850. That is the point where Vera felt free enough that she started slipping up. Dropping clues about her real intentions. I thought her to be only 18 when we met, but she was already thousands of years old, having already gone through this process. She has power, but instead chooses to grow it in others, manipulating and controlling them. All these horrible things you’ve seen in this lab, glimpses of other worlds, of darkness...Vera has been traveling around many different universes for many more years than even I could imagine. She has been simultaneously ‘cultivating’ versions of me and others, making us build our own powerful creations and then turning them on us, and using them to suck the life force out of the land. She keeps doing it over and over in different realities. I don’t know why. But I know it’s true. I’ve found corpses of myself from other worlds, ruined labs, wrecked landscapes. Dead versions of you, of everyone. I could only begin to guess, perhaps her world is permanently damaged and requires a constant supply of energy, or perhaps she is on some deranged revenge mission.”

Sirius paused in front of a large set of steel doors, each with a single long vertical steel handlebar. They were in the final passageway leading to the vault.

“I managed to banish her from the lab and block her re-entry. She seemed to have temporarily slipped through the cracks while the lab was damaged, and she’s very likely responsible for all the convenient dangers we’ve come across. She’s now blocked again, but she’s growing more aggressive. It could still be hundreds of years before she acts again, but to her that is mere moments. I anticipate that if I don’t begin constructing dimensional barriers across all of Hyrule, she may take more drastic action and begin to turn the world against me.” Sirius sighed. “I have one more thing to say.” He placed a hand on Chamdar again.

“This world and my own meddlings have gifted me with the chance to see the future as it might be, though never exactly as it will be. I see Vera manipulating the greatest of us.” Sirius stared intensely into Chamdar’s eyes. “All of us. She has more power than we know, and she is wise, always playing us like we are pieces in a game, never putting herself directly on the board. I need to know that you trust me when I say that I am leaving behind many of my old ways, experiments, abominations - those are done. I am focused now on protecting this world because we might be in its final era if we fail.”

Summary: Entirely dialogue and walking through the lab. Sirius recants his long history with Vera, covering when they first met, up through the Epoch war. He explains that she is manipulative, and seems to be sucking the very energy out of worlds, ultimately destroying them. He has her blocked from the Lab, which is the place she needs access to, but she’s working on ways to get back in, and might be able to within a few centuries (by the time the WWRP happens, basically).

Severa rose from the ground slowly, rubbing her eyes, a throbbing pain in her head making it hard to see. The last thing she remembered was...fuzzy. A collection of images, random explosions, fighting, and a feeling of urgency and fear lacing it all. Something had happened with her father's laboratory, something had happened. A man killed, and then she was saved by some other girl.

Severa was alone now, her companions now scattered, and the woman who saved her nowhere to be seen.

The lab seemed to be falling apart. Jets of steam, liquid flowing through rooms normally meant to be maintained and pristine, and the distinct sound of reality being torn asunder. It was a very unique sound, like an entire universe screaming in pain from a botched surgery. It meant her father had been killed, or at least damaged to the point that the lab lost its anchor.

And yet it also appeared to be in repair. Severa tried to piece together what could be happening when she heard the laugh. The gentle, fake laughter of the woman she despised most, her mother. Vera stepped forward through a cloud of steam, sporting two completely intact eyes. Clearly she had recovered from the damage Severa had previously inflicted. It didn’t take a genius to know she’d been manipulated.

“Mother.”

Vera said nothing and continued to walk towards Severa, the laughter ceasing, but the smile remaining.

(“Warning, warning, intruder-”) Some kind of automated voice began speaking. It sounded decidedly more alive than the previous ones Sirius had used in the lab. But it was cut off rather quickly by Vera, who merely raised a hand to accomplish the silencing. Severa felt weak, and braced herself against a wall as her mother continued to approach.

“Severa.” She said at last. “I’m afraid it’s bad enough that your father is still alive, let alone you. You and I both know that your birth was not anticipated. I’m afraid that the opportunity to prevent it has passed, but the opportunity to rectify the situation has not.” Vera raised another hand and Severa was forced against the wall, immediately beginning to choke.

“What…” Severa choked down some air, knowing that her mother could have killed her by now if she wanted. Whatever had been holding her back all those years before, was gone. Perhaps it was something in the lab itself, or perhaps… “Ack…” It became increasingly harder to breath so she abandoned her ruminations in favor of action. Her solluna gauntlets grew brightly, but Vera ripped them off and tossed them to the side.

“No, I’m afraid this is the end. It’s-” Vera was interrupted, and briefly released her grip on Severa.

(“Total lockdown engaged!”) The voice returned. (“Severa, your father is not aware of your presence, but I’m sure he would give his regards if he could. Allow me to speak on his behalf when I say, I’m so sorry.”)

A flood of water entered the room, coming from the nearest dimensional tear, which had grown to a massive size. The torrent hit both Vera and Severa hard, knocking them both to the ground. In a twist of fate, Severa recovered faster, pushing against the onslaught of water and slipping her gauntlets back on, quickly gripping Vera and using the maximum energy level she could.

(“Allow me to assist.”) The lab voice spoke again, and beams of green lightning began to strike Vera. Ultimately it seemed to only anger her, and after a few seconds of onslaught from her daughter, Vera threw her off and turned towards the dimensional rip, sealing it instantly.

“Bernard, why do you serve Sirius? He doesn’t care for you!” Vera seemed shaken, angry. Whatever plans she held were not proceeding as intended.

(“I think you’ll find he’s had a recent change of heart. We are grateful to you for that motivation.”) Bernard amped up the lightning and Vera was struck down again. Severa had begun to understand what was going on. She didn’t know this Bernard, but he was the controller of the lab now, and Sirius had done something drastic to restore power. Vera was weakening. She wouldn’t stay long. This also meant that Sirius finally understood what Severa had known in her heart since birth. Vera cared for no one.

Severa approached the weakened Vera and began viciously punching her in the face. White hot rage consumed her.

“What’s wrong with me? Why shouldn’t I exist? Why should YOU exist?!” She landed a harder punch between each question. For the briefest of moments, it seemed like Vera might actually pass out, but she regained her focus and threw out her arms, creating a bubble around her. The lightning began to be deflected back into the lab equipment and towards Sirius. Severa had never seen her mother like this, she had always sensed power, but this was something entirely different.

“....It will be truly satisfying when I finally feed this world to my people.” Vera’s eyes were glowing white. She made a quick motion with her wrist and another singularity opened. It seemed to strain her.

(“Severa, she has mere moments before she’s trapped her, stop her!”) Bernard’s voice had urgency like Severa had never heard, and she lunged at Vera, but it was too late. Her mother had already vanished through the portal, and it had sealed itself. (“...Too late. Total lab lockdown has commenced. She will not be able to escape.”)

Severa smiled. She had been traveling through alternate realities much longer than she realized. Her memories were coming back. Sirius...her father, he had bestowed her an amazing gift. He had allowed her soul to sync with the lab perfectly, such that the defenses did not affect her. Bernard seemed to know and he had only one more thing to say.

(“Don’t seek her out yet, wherever you go. Your father is going to need you someday to stop her. If you care for this world, you will trust these words.”)

Severa nodded to the bodiless voice. She placed her hands upon the air, as if they were on an invisible wall. A doorway appeared, and Severa stepped towards it.

“Bernard was it? I think I’m actually grateful to my father for once. Tell him - tell him I’m sorry for everything that happened before. I’m sorry that it was harder for him to see than me. And tell him that I think Vera left a surprise for him, a phantom.” She took a deep breath. “I promise to come back. I have the same powers as my mother. Crossing realities, dimensions. I think maybe she knows, but doesn’t realize the extent of my power. I have to keep it secret, and make it more powerful. Anyway, goodbye. I hope Sirius didn’t take too much from you by putting you here.”

Severa stepped through the doorway to another reality and it vanished behind her.

(“Good luck Severa, whatever it is you’re doing.)

Summary: This affects literally no one. Severa story finally being followed up on. She wakes up in the lab shortly before Sirius locks it down. She has a pretty brutal fist fight with her mother, and then her mother escapes just before the lab is completely locked down. However, it turns out Severa is immune to the lockdown AND capable of freely traveling across realities. She leaves our reality behind to continue her personal journey, after warning Bernard that Vera left something deadly behind for Sirius and crew.

“This world and my own meddlings have gifted me with the chance to see the future as it might be, though never exactly as it will be. I see Vera manipulating the greatest of us.” Sirius stared intensely into Chamdar’s eyes. “All of us. She has more power than we know, and she is wise, always playing us like we are pieces in a game, never putting herself directly on the board. I need to know that you trust me when I say that I am leaving behind many of my old ways, experiments, abominations - those are done. I am focused now on protecting this world because we might be in its final era if we fail.”

Chamdar regarded the mad scientist for a time in silence before the steel double doors.

"We often create the calamities we must forestall, don't we? I have done so just as you have, and put plans into motion that will hopefully lead to the best possible outcomes." he replied thoughtfully, even as he took hold of the handle and pulled one of the steel doors open. Just a sliver, wide enough for him to slip his tall, narrow frame through sideways. "I appreciate you sharing this with me, Doc, and I'll help you deal with her when the time comes, if she represents such a danger as you believe.

"Now come. I've business here that I would like to attend to quickly. I dare not leave Hothnight and Annei to their own devices here too long, even with your control of this place. They represent another of my calamities. One I intend to deal with before long."

He slipped through the crack, leaving it ajar so that Sirius could follow him. This place belonged to Sirius, but there were places which by agreements made he could not enter alone. What lay inside the double doors was a long corridor like those above, except that it was not empty, or lined with suspended animation tanks. Instead it ended abruptly half way down its normal length, barred by a massive door of silver alloy--the same used in the construction of his pocket watch--inscribed with spidery runic script. Chamdar approached slowly. Reverently. It had been some time since he and Sirius had come to their accommodation. Such a long time...

The vault door was no normal door in that it bore no cracks of creases, no lines, knobs or handles. It was a solid wall of silver radiating an inner light at his approach. There was only one way past. A vault key.

He drew again the pocket watch from his cassock, letting its argentine surface catch the light of the door. It had grown warm in his pocket, and hummed as he held it aloft, swingly gently from the chain. With a deep breath, he flicked his wrist and took hold of the watch itself, flipping it open so that the luminous display within was plain to see. The golden script was writing over itself rapidly, flashing excitedly.

He inserted the face into a small, almost imperceptible slot beneath the lower slash line of a central rune.The gold light rippled out across the surface of the door, illuminating each of the massive runes in bright golden light, which shone in rays from the carved symbols, growing in brilliance until it forced the two men to avert their eyes, lest they be blinded permanently.

When at last his eyes slid open again, Chamdar stood in the middle of a long hall, unobstructed, with his watch resting in his outstretched hand. The door was gone. He looked back to Sirius.

"Come," he said, snapping the watch shut and pocketing it as he turned back and stepping past where the barrier had stood. "Let's be about it."

The walls beyond were lined with tables, shelves and pedestals bearing all manner of curiosities. Items of power that Chamdar had collected or created throughout the ages. As he strode, he noted a flute carved of bone-white wood, a smith's hammer inscribed with thorny vines along the haft, a shelf of books bound in dried, blood red leather. The powers gathered in this vault... he dared not leave these things even in his own windmill, guarded by his spells and barriers. Nearer the rear end of the vault, he noted a plaque bearing a bow carved from jet black wood, with a quiver hanging at its side. Beside that, a small outfit of stiff black leather, all rivets and buckles, with fingerless gloves and open-toed boots. To the side of the bow hung a pair of short, curved swords with hooks protruded up and out along the top of the blade.

Finally he arrived at the far wall. Here, one single tank like those found in the corridor above stood alone. The pedestal at its side was flashing lights and symbols, and the lights were green. A good sign, the tank remained undisturbed.

"This is what you came for?" Sirius asked curiously. "Him?"

Chamdar turned his eyes from the display to the clear-crystal front of the tank itself. Floating suspended was a figure of gray-green scales, with a narrow but hardened frame. Even awake and upright, the figure was barely half his height.

"He is a... fail safe of mine in case things go poorly. As things spiral out of control, I needed to know that he was safe and well preserved." he replied.

"Project Requital is in perfect health," Bernard's voice echoed through the vault. "None of the power fluctuations or temporal disturbances disrupted anything on this level. The protocols you arranged to put in place remain active. His suspended animation remains tied to the signal the tank receives from the watch."

Chamdar nodded, reassured.
"Good, he will be important." He turned from the tank. "But he is not the only reason I needed to see my vault."

He took several steps back in the other direction. Along the wall opposite from the bow and the black leather armor, a broad circular shield hung from the wall. Its face was steel or a similar allow, scrubbed to a mirror-sheen. Its outer edge was banded in a golden material that reflected all of the light that hit it, gleaming like fire. At its center was embossed a golden sunburst. The shield was massive enough for a large man to hide most of his upper body behind, and it radiated the warmth of the human soul. Chamdar held up the pocket watch again, face exposed, and tapped it. The shield seemed to dissolve into motes of light, all of which spiraled into the watch and vanished. He snapped it shut again.

"That's it, let's get back before the others murder one another."

He began striding back toward where the door had stood, but thought better of it a moment later. He paused beside the bookshelf containing the small, blood red books. He snatched up several of them, skinny, palm sized tomes containing spells that he should not have known given his affiliations, and slid them beneath the breast of his cassock. He also took a small brown satchel hanging nearby, containing glass orbs of certain elaborate, constructed magicks. Finally, he found a silver-white dagger lying innocently atop a marble plinth. He took that, and the sheath, and hung it from his belt. When he was done, they each stepped out past where the door should be, and he turned and opened the watch face one last time. With a few calculated taps of one finger on the face, the light blazed to life again, and when it subsided the massive silver door stood once more.

He turned to Sirius. "This is your lab. Can you bring us to the others now?"

Summary: Chamdar and Sirius enter Chamdar's vault, for which Chamdar's pocket watch is the key. Inside is a veritable museum of powerful and arcane magicks and magical items, but the greatest curosity is a suspended animation tank containing some manner of reptilian creature (hmmm...). Chamdar checks to see that the suspended figure is still in good health and no systems have been disturbed, then grabs a peculiar magical shield, along with a number of other items, and seals everything back up.

Lia suddenly appeared in the tent directly in front of Senshi causing him to jump slightly in surprise. <“I’m here”>

“Ok, I wasn’t expecting that,” Senshi said as he stumbled to find a course of action. Not only because he wasn’t prepared for her sudden arrive but because he still didn’t know what to say to her; all things considered, “Um, I… Look, I have to take care of some things. Everyone’s around here somewhere. Just maybe use words. I think everyone’s a little to mentally stressed to deal with strange voices in their heads right now. I’ll be… somewhere.”

Summary:
Senshi advices not the use her telepathy as a primary means of communication because everyone’s head is mess up right now then departs with Jaden.

Ayala/Hidden Kakariko/Day 2

Ayala was focusing hard to try and use her Sword of Light to purify the Argorock stone like her brother suggested. Though not accidently smashing the thing was taking a level of control and concentration she rarely bothered with. It was because of that she barely noticed anything odd when a woman came over and started speaking to her in ancient. "Hey you. Yeah you in the scarf. Can you understand me?"

"Ummm, yes," she responded not realizing the point of the question.

"Good. Sorry to bug you but, well, I really need some help. This might sound awkward but do you know who Jaden Bryseis is and or anything about time travel?"

It was then that it finally dawned on why she was asking. Her eyes suddenly widen with excitement and she dropped what she was doing and nearly pounced the woman hoping to make her acquaintance. "You’re speaking ancient! No one speaks ancient anymore not even people who were around back then!"

Being overjoyed with being able to have a conversation in her first language again, Ayala continued to ramble of, failing to give the woman a chance to get a word in edge wise. “Oh I’m sorry you asked about time travel. Are you a time traveler? That’s so cool, my uncle was too. When are you from? Wait, no, hold that though, you have to meet my brother. He knows about time travel stuff, that’s supposed to be a secret though. Let’s go find him.”

Ayala initially ran off without thinking, but quickly stopped and turned back to her new friend who was still standing there dumfounded. She grabbed to woman by the arm with a beaming smile as if to be a shining guide through the chaos, “I’m sorry I guess that was a lot all at once. My name’s Ayala by the way.”

Summary:
Ayala is a little too excited to meet Ella, but does manage to suggest that Senshi might have some of the answers she needs.

Upon hearing Aris' pleas for her to fall awake, Kae could see light creeping into the corners of her vision. The Cosmic Grid began to fade, all while fate drew itself out before her. Elizabeth. Tristan. Why did those names keep popping out of the stars? She couldn't stop looking at them, and while she needed to wake up, things were too peaceful here...too serene...

This war was taking its toll on the Scion, and she'd only truly been back in it for less than a day after what the rest of the world said was a six month absence. Then again, none of them had to fight what she did. Sourbeneton was horrible. She hoped no one would ever have to deal with him again after banishing him to the Twisting Nether once more.

Her eyes slowly started to crack open as her shallow breathing quickened. Her left arm illuminated the room as a torch in the night, and she began to cough. Aris reached out for her, but she didn't see him fully.

"Water..."

One of the medical staff ran and fetched her a mug with a straw while Aris motioned for others to come quickly.

"Lady Kae, I'm Dr. Colm. Honored to meet you, but I wish it were under better circumstances. Your friend here hasn't left your side for long. Your brother was here, and we think your parents are somewhere around here. You sustained a pretty acute head injury, and I know it's probably not possible, but if you could give us some time to run a few tests before running off into battle again, it could save your life."

Aris sighed and lifted the mug for Kae as she sipped on it, rapidly processing thoughts. She was scanning the room rapidly, and trying to figure out who all was here.

"You're right. It probably isn't possible. As soon as it is feasible for me to speak with High Command, Lord Aris and myself should do so. Thank you for looking after me, and when that meeting concludes, I will return for another examination if time allows."

She couldn't sit up for long without support for her back, so Aris helped her adjust.

"This man is not just my friend, doctor. He's my boyfriend. Kinda just happened while I was in the Sacred Realm. I owe my life to him...and Elly Shea..."

The doctor looked at her strangely. Sure, she was a divine champion, but weren't those kind of folk meant to be less wanton with their hearts, especially those aligned with Nayru?

"How hazardous is this head injury, physician?"

"Unfortunately, due to the Scion's lack of pupils I can't fully determine the extent. But she should definitely avoid combat for the next few days. It's more than just a bell ring based on how she was breathing while she was out."

Kae waved both of her hands and motioned for everyone to slow down.

"I know I'm banged up. Please, let's talk about this after I report to the higher ups."
She motioned for Aris to help her to her feet and he did so with little difficulty. Finishing her water, she thanked the doctor again and took Aris' arm, getting ready to make her way over to the war room.

High up in the Yeti Village, the black sky was too cold, too clear for even the faintest, most distant stars to hide. Like a cloud of dust hanging above the frozen tundra, night passed over the cloaked and helmeted heads of an elder Yeti council, seated around a blue flame.

Four Yeti of varying height and dress were seated at each cardinal direction. They coexisted in silence, heads bowed and arms folded. Above them, the limp but contented body of the deceased medicine man Jotunn lay suspended in the biting cold air.

“The time has come,” said one of the largest of the old goblins. “The shaman’s night has fallen.”

From beyond the crashing peaks that surrounded their domain, dark clouds began to spiral into view. The moon sat enthroned on the cold expanse, its light all the brighter as the storm rolled in.

“We have waited too long to revive our ancestor,” one of the Yeti crowed. “Jotunn grows impatient.”

“The dead know only patience,” another growled. “He should abide in his grave until the Shaman’s Mask is returned.”

“Fenrir is right,” the fourth and youngest added. “We cannot know the consequences of what we unleash. Not while the trespasser’s Ape Mask persists in the Realm.”

“If his power is combined with the ancestral Shaman’s,” the growling critic continued, “it could be the end of both.”

“Silence,” the oldest sighed, ruling. “We may not live to see the ancestors fulfill any of our prophecies, if we do not perform the oblations now.”

The northernmost Yeti stood up and raised his long arms into the air. After him, the easterly and westerly brothers rose, and finally the southern brother. They all closed their eyes, and slowly their hands met in a ring, with just a few inches between their broad, leathery palms.

When they opened their eyes, a white light poured from each to illumine the corpse of Jotunn now much higher above them. The clouds continue to spiral inward until they met in a thundering gyre, swallowing the moon up to a fine point. Finally, when a thin column of moonlight poured directly down through the clouds onto Jotunn’s chest, the Yeti dropped their arms and a cascade of Blue Fire sprang up from the ground, engulfed the shaman’s body, and elevated it into the sky.

The elder Yeti kept their eyes closed out of reverence as their shaman disintegrated, but the young skeptic kept one eye open. He wanted to watch the Shaman’s hands burn away in the cold light, watch his fingers melt, his face. It was his first immolation, and though he had heard legends of the hated trespasser who had slain their kin, he did not share the elders’ faith that the ritual would somehow restore balance, and bring a new shaman into the realm.

OOC: Yeti elders perform a funeral rite on the body of Jotunn, the medicine man who housed Taden during his Snowhead exile. There is some debate about whether the funeral is being carried out too soon. The body is disintegrated in a pyre of Blue Flame, and dissolves into a gathering winter storm.

Chamdar turned to Sirius. "This is your lab. Can you bring us to the others now?"

Sirius waited to reply. He was receiving a telepathic message from Bernard, and wanted to hear the entire thing before giving his attention to something else. Bernard informed him of Severa’s interactions with Vera, finishing off by passing along both Severa’s apology and her warning. It seems that restoring the lab when he did was wise, Vera had just barely been ejected from their reality. In truth, Sirius still felt like he had failed, as the true objective had been preventing her from ever returning at all.

Even thinking about her she gained access to the world reminded him of what he had done to block her. Poison, of a sort. Hundreds of years earlier, during the Epoch war, Vera had become sick from a timestone explosion, and Sirius had been able to study the sickness and use it to create a sort of space time lock, keeping her out of Hyrule, but it was never perfect, and she had obviously gotten better.

Chamdar seemed impatient as Sirius stood in silence for an extended period of time.

“I can do anything you need, old man.” Sirius looked up to command Bernard, for no real reason since Bernard did not exist in any particular place. “Bernard, please take us to wherever the idiots are fighting.”

(“You don’t seem to be fighting currently, Sirius.”) Sirius saw Chamdar raise an eyebrow to the response. It wasn’t exactly the kind of cooperation one would expect from a machine. (“Yes, of course. But might I offer a suggestion?”)

“Oh, please.” Sirius replied.

(“I sense a disturbance in the central chamber of the lab.”)

“My...bedroom?” Sirius smirked. “Vera’s leaving phantoms of herself in the master suite. Is there anything poetic about that? I’m not sure since I don’t really read anymore.” He didn’t wait for a response, none were warranted. “So what is your suggestion, Bernard?”

(“I can transport you and Chamdar to the central chamber. I could quarantine Lynn and Taden if you would like, or bring them along.”) Sirius pondered his options. He figured that regardless of precautions, people as powerful as they would certainly escape.

“All of this magic and technology and I’m sure that fate or destiny or one of those assholes would somehow free them from quarantine anyway. At least I can keep an eye on them, and hey - maybe they will form one of those convenient enemy of my enemy alliances.”

(“I’m glad you can still be optimistic. Please give the final confirmation that you would like all four of your brought to the central chamber.”)

“Do it.” Sirius commanded. Bernard wasted no time. A doorway materialized in front of him. “Oh right, this chamber is teleport proofed.” He looked to Chamdar. “Step through and we will be taken to the true central chamber of the lab. There’s a rather nasty problem there that needs routing, and I will likely require assistance. I’m having Bernard send along Taden and Lynn as well, but only after I assess our target.” Chamdar walked through the door without a word. Sirius followed, and it shut behind them. They had entered a sort of elevator system, which promptly whisked them off towards the central lab chambers, arriving within moments. To those of limited perception it would have seemed like they hadn’t moved at all.

“I don’t usually let others in here.” Sirius and Chamdar stepped into the chambers, revealing it to be a fairly uninspired bedroom. A bed. A desk. A small fireplace. In the corner however was what could only be described as a very suspicious shadow. “I think we both know that will be the source of our troubles before too long.” Sirius pointed at the shadow.

“Bernard, let’s hold off on bringing Taden and Lynn here until I can determine what we’re up against. Are they currently in regions open to teleportation?”

(“Yes.”)

“Good.” Sirius clapped his hands together and the room lit up brightly. “Always loved doing that.” The shadow grew darker alongside the increased light. It was not being cast from any particularly obvious source. It was Vera’s phantom, or whatever she chose to call her phantom. “I’m tired of waiting.” Sirius said, and the shadow seemed to respond. It began rising from the floor, splitting out into sixteen spidery legs, but more rigid. A thicker section grew, covered in bubbling pustules. It took on a more purple-reddish color, with what could have been anything, but appeared to be blood, dripping onto the floor. It grumbled out the most raspy and distorted version of Vera’s voice that Sirius had ever had the pleasure of hearing.

“....Sirius….” It had the trademark struggle of speech that shadow creatures like this always seemed to have. Funny that it could grow so many limbs but not a proper set of vocal chords. “...Die…”

“Curt, that’s respectable.” Sirius looked to Chamdar. “Truth be told, I don’t know what this is. It’s a shadow creature, but it’s not of this world, or any I’ve seen. We’re going to need to be on guard.” He stopped as the creature lashed out, having now grown a dozen tentacles, each one sporting a massive eye. That was at least a familiar site to Sirius, Hyrule’s monsters had a penchant for massive eyes. “I bet you anything it won’t be so easy to aim at the eyes as we think.” Sirius produced his trademark lunar whip and whipped it towards one of the eyes. It exploded and a new one grew in its place instantaneously. “Good thing you didn’t take that bet. Okay, Bernard, I’ve made up my mind. Get Taden and Lynn in here, now!”

Bernard had predicted Sirius as always and was already in the process of snagging them. Whatever journeys they were on in the lab were cut abruptly short, as they both suddenly plopped onto the floor next to Sirius and Chamdar. The shadow creature was now raised up on all sixteen legs, tentacles waving around. The bubbling shadow pimples had a molten look to them, making Sirius fairly certain that touching them would be akin to dipping one's hand into magma. This creature was composed of multiple elements.

“This is the part where you set aside differences and help fight this creature, whether you want to or not. I promise, any attempt to turn against me or ally with it will result in your death.” Sirius said. “If you’re wondering why I’m so calm-” One of the shadow creatures tentacles whipped out and was deflected away by a previously invisible lunar barrier. “One way barrier. That won’t last long, just enough for me to finish this sentence.” True to his word, the barrier exploded, and the entire group was forced to dodge out of the way as the creature rushed forward, slamming itself into the rear wall and destroying the bed.

“Now that's just rude. Bernard, room expansion!” Sirius commanded. The walls of the room pulled back at lightning speed, revealing its true size to be close to five hundred feet around, in a circular design. Just enough space to maneuver safely. “Reward to the first person to find a weak spot on this thing!"

Summary: Hentai - er….um….Tentacle monster now in Sirius central chambers (aka his bedroom). He’s forcibly teleported Lynn and Taden to the chambers, alongside himself and Chamdar. The monster has sixteen spidery legs, a dozen tentacles with eyes that can regenerate, and it’s body is covered with magma pimples. Gross.

Taden sprang high into the air and curled his small frame into a ball, tumbling head over feet until righting himself along a steel catwalk running the perimeter of the Vault. From a crouched position, he howled from deep in his chest and threw open both his arms, sending two bursts of Blue Fire sailing from his palms.

As they spread across the room, the dark flame fused into the shape of two massive hands, hovering over the gathered warriors. From his perch above them, Taden drew back his own hands, pulling the manifestations along with him. When he thrust his fists towards the ground, the giant hands of Blue Fire followed, and seized Lynn Hothlight in their icy grip.

“Now you’ll know what it’s like to have your very soul stolen,” he snarled.

Lynn’s arms were crossed over her chest and her head bowed; as she made herself smaller, an aura of gold light began to intersperse with a halo of frozen flames. Like a puppetmaster, Taden drew his arms wide—and below him, Lynn’s long arms spread apart, as the Blue Hands expanded to either wall.

To either side, he saw Sirius and Chamdar step back, shielding their eyes from Lynn’s beaming aura. Chamdar glared up at him, his wizened eyes invoking mercy for his sometime Sheikah ally.

“Did you truly believe concealing the Cloak in your shadowmonger would keep it from me, Taliesin? Like so many times before, you sacrifice those around you in vain,” he taunted.

He raised up one fist, and so below, Lynn’s head flew back for rays of Ice and Light magicks to stream forth from her eyes and mouth. When Taden punched his hand toward the earth again, Lynn’s body flew forward, a crackling starburst of barely contained power hurtling into Sirius’s demonic squid.

OOC: Taden takes possession of the Hated Cloak within Lynn’s soul, and uses it to turn her into an Ice/Light bomb to lob at Sirius’s monster.

The Treant quietly mulled over its thoughts as it paced patiently through the camp, holding its lifeless companion in its arms. Consume…Destroy… It continued to ponder these words unhindered, as the kinder and softer voice had given up arguing with Treant. It stopped for a moment to look up at the sky, the stars still visible as they twinkled brightly against the darkened blue. Then it hit Treant as it considered not the words but the feeling behind them.

“Words…not just for me…’ it thought aloud, ‘…Gather…Friends.”

This epiphany barely had time to finish processing before Treant found itself going back to where Kae was last it saw her at full stride, meeting her just as she was getting back up, her duties placing themselves before her well-being. However, upon reaching the group, what it had to say had been swallowed. It instead decided to wordlessly take to Kae's side as a secondary bodyguard as an apology.

Summary: Treant figures it out and prepares to announce its leaving...But blanks out as it arrives and instead decides to stand by Kae on the walk to High Command.

Horus/Hidden Kakariko Camp/Day 2

Horus frowned as the scuffle was promptly dispersed before he could get his answer. Grumpily walking away from the infirmary, he grumbled to himself about nothing at all as he stared down at the ground and kicking the occasional rock like a pouty child. Finally, he came to a rest next to a barrel of weapons, leaning against it as he rested Darrel's sword on his lap.

"He stunk like the undead...Who knew those damned things could bleed..." The Rito muttered to himself.

He found himself examining his arrows as he let his mind wander on the matter. Suddenly, something clicked in his mind as he looked intently at the arrowhead.

"Bleed...' He looked at Morning's Edge, which laid heavily on his legs before his eyes lit up, '...Wait a minute!"

His speed nearly bewildered even him as the next thing he knew, he was poking his head into the infirmary tent.

"Doctor!" He yelled, feverishly closing the gap between him and the busied Hylian.

"Wh-what?' the doctor exclaimed back with a mixture of surprise and annoyance, 'I'm stitching someone up, don't do that to me!"

"What?!...On record, no; All samples Hyrule scholars who were born before the war have collected in history have all pointed to Twili being biologically indistinguishable from us! Why?"

"That's all I needed to hear sir. Thank you!" Horus cut the conversation short, joy filling his voice. In the heat of this discovery Horus hugged the doctor tightly, his mind racing with new ideas. "You beautiful man! You may have just won us the war if I can do what I'm thinking about!"

Before the doctor could even reply, Horus was gone.

The Rito's supply kit hit his work table hard as Horus sat down in his tent, evilly grinning ear-to-ear. He started pulling out vials of chemicals and several magically protected supplies for stirring, boiling and mixing, all meticulously strewn across before him as he rubbed his chafed and sweaty palms together. He let out a small cackle as he considered the ingredients he had accrued in the past.

Lynn crouched low, presenting as small a profile she could to both the shadowy beast and Taden, judging both to be as large a threat as the other. Taden took to the air, leaping onto a catwalk which circled the extremities of the room, and called forth his Blue Fire above her and the two old men. The shadow beast briefly shied away from this floating fire, and Taden drew back his arms to form his summoned flames into hands, which moved to mimic is own and swept along the floor.

Lynn tried to run, but the hands were so large she had no escape. They struck her, the flame burning cold around her and holding her tight.

“Now you’ll know what it’s like to have your very soul stolen,” Taden snarled at her.

She tried to roll into a defensive position, trying to present the smallest surface area for when the Blue Ice began to burn into her. But Taden drew his arms wide, and the hands rushed out to either wall, causing her to float, spread-eagle, limbs pulled to their extremities. She clenched her jaw, refusing to show any weakness to this inhuman monster.

“Did you truly believe concealing the Cloak in your shadowmonger would keep it from me, Taliesin? Like so many times before, you sacrifice those around you in vain."

Chamdar Taliesin... Again, he failed. And this time, it seemed, Lynn would pay for his streak of impotence. Lynn tried to turn her head, to glare at the doomed magician, but Taden's magic hands kept her rigid. Then, she lost consciousness of the world. Light and Darkness coursed through her consciousness, wiping away all thoughts and concerns. She wasn't sure if she screamed, or if her mind was silently raging away in her own head. The Light burst, flooding through her being, as the Darkness was torn free and leaft a ragged edge, which hurt more than anything had ever hurt before. That torn edge hurt in her soul, in her essence, as the Light poured over it, searing it with brightness.

She floated in that Light as it burnt her and healed her, simultaneously. She hated and loved it, as it wounded her and relieved her pain. Her only wish was to fall into darkness, to make the pain go away in oblivion, but there was no Darkness left. Only Light, it was only bright. She couldn't escape, she couldn't run, she couldn't contain it or control it.

That Light rushed from her, firing into the room from even her pores at it overflowed, ejecting the Ice Magic within her alongside itself. Her body, flung by Taden, slammed into the shadow beast, and the thing howled an unnatural scream of agony as Lynn's Light cascaded onto it. It gave voice, with that roar, to the sounds which Lynn wished she could make as the convulsions began to wrack her muscles.

Summary: Lynn... uh... kidna sort explodes? At last it seems to have hurt Vera's Shadow.

“I figured out a while ago that Eridanus had ended up somewhere in the past, so I spent the past few months trying to figure out when he was, and how to get him back.” Senshi said once he was sure Jaden and himself were finally alone.

“Yesterday I had finally found a clue,” he pulled the ancient letter from Soldat du Ciel he’d found and tossed to Jaden, “but before I got act on it he just showed up in Hyrule Castle. That would have been great if he was in his right mind, and if Kinslayer hadn’t gotten their first. It was Eridanus’ idea to bring him along, I didn’t have a say in the matter. The most I could do was stick close to the both of them and hope nothing went horribly wrong.”

“As things stand now the Eridanus with us today isn’t the same man who disappeared 6 months ago. Worse, whoever he is now, I can’t be certain he isn’t a danger to himself or anyone else. Which is where that comes in,” he said pointing to the letter. “That thing was written by a leader of the Guardian Order from 1000 year ago. Even Eridanus isn’t that old, yet its address to him. It’s also addressed to you and someone named Elizabeth Bryce. ”

Senshi gave Jaden a moment to process the implications of the parchment he now held. Even if what Senshi said about Polaris time traveling was true how could his own name be on it? And just who was Elizabeth.

Senshi continued, “As things stand now that impossible letter is the only clue as to what happened to Eridanus in the past. Which if we can figure out, maybe we could help him find his way. The problem is I can’t open it. There’s some kind of magic seal on it, which the best I can figure, will break for those it’s addressed to. So I have to leave this in your hands. If you can open it great, if not maybe Eridanus can and with luck nothing in there will make him flip out. Sadly I’m not sure I’ll be able to help any more in the matter. I’m being pursued at the moment so it’s not safe for me to stick around any of you for too long. On top of all of that, I think right now you may be the only of us left who’s sane and reliable enough to keep everyone together and relatively safe.”

“In short, Jaden, I’m asking you to look after all the light warriors as you would your own little sister. To get them through this and the try and fix what ails them. I’m asking you to do the things that I feel I should be doing myself but can’t,” he’s fist tightened hard as he nearly choked on the shame of his own words. “And I’m sorry.”

After a brief silent moment Senshi reached into his pouch and tossed Jaden a large coin, “Here, that’s the Medallion of the Sage of Stars. I stole it from Blade in hope of using it to deal with Hothnight but that plan, well, things didn’t work out. I figure its power is more suited to you then just about anyone else. I’m sorry but it’s the only help I can offer until I can sort out my own problems. Anyway, I’ll be leaving by dawn, so if things go wrong for me and we don’t meet again, I’ll just say good luck.”

Summary:
Senshi explains the situation with Polaris being off his rocked and gives Jaden the letter from Soldat hoping he’ll be able to open it and get some clues as to just what happened to Polaris in the past so maybe something can be done to help him heal. He also asks Jaden to look after the other Light Warriors in his place since being pursued by Taur is tying his hands, and he figures Jaden is the only one he can rely on. He also gives him the Star Sage Medallion and the parts ways, not sure if he’ll survive this time.

Seishi/Hidden Kakariko- Training Grounds/Late Afternoon 2

“Alright trying this, YAHHHRR!” a trainee yelled as he jumping in the air in a wild attempt to finally land a meaningful blow on his opponent. His rather large opponent effortlessly blocked the strike with his bare arm causing the wooden training sword to shatter into tiny splitters. The large trainee then countered with a single mighty punch that sent the sword man flying several feet.

“No way,” the smaller trainee said in disbelief. He then noticed his opponents equally imposing teammate walking towards him with a violent look in his eye. “Hey, hey wait a minute,” he said as he started to panic. He tried to get up to run by found himself over whelmed with pain. He hadn’t realized it until just then but the blow he’d taken had left his chest covered with burns.

“That’s enough,” a third teammate called out to the juggernaut a moment before he smashed the swordsman’s head into putty. The man, covered head to toe in armor then approached the fallen trainee. “You’ll have to forgive my companions. They’re not use to training fights, so they have trouble remembering not to kill their opponent.”

The Armored man placed his hand on the trainee’s massive burn and began to envelope it with a glowing blue aura. In a short moment the burns where completely healed. The armored man then walked over to help with the trainee’s two teammates who were in a similar shape.

“Wow that’s pretty awesome, you’re like a Knight and a White Mage at the same time. I hear our commanders like that too.” The trainee said as he looked over his healed chest in amazement.

“You don’t say,” the armored man replied in a manner that should just how little he cared.

The trainee, failing to catch on, pointed up to where Seishi had been watching the training from and continued to ramble, “Yeah, I overheard the instructors talking. He’s some kind of special knight from some weird cult or something. I think they called him a Pally Lid or Salad Din or something like that.”

“A Paladin,” the armored man said as he tone grew cold and he glared up towards the commander has he was led by a junior officer.

Phoenix’s Chambers/Moments Later

“So what the hell is so important you had to send some scared ass lieutenants to come find me?” Seishi asked as he casually walking into the room.

Phoenix tossed over the half burned paper he’d received earlier. Seishi started thumbing through the mostly ruined documents not sure what to make of them until he final came across a few key words, “Just what the hell is this?”

Phoenix answered as calmly as he could, “Research notes recovered from Sirius Fulmaren’s lab. One of my agents discovered them yesterday morning. From his report and what I could gather from those notes Sirius had 5 or 6 Ma with exceptionally powered hosts sealed away. There was no sign of what happened to them and most of the documents in the room were intentionally burnt.”

Seishi took a moment to consider the situation before finally give his assessment on the issue. “Ok, that lab was in the forest right? Best case scenario they’re busy ripping apart twili forces and will burn themselves as a result. Worst case, they’re still ripping apart the Twili but we might have to finish them off before the go after the locals or the Kokiri. I don’t like it, but seems like this might help us.”

“No,” Phoenix respond bluntly, “I’ve seen what happens when you lose control. That kind of carnage wouldn’t have gone unnoticed regardless of which side they were attacking; more so with this many lose on the world.”

“You’re worried they’re the intelligent kind. Like the one that made you or that showed up at the Castle Battle. Well those things tend to have an agenda. We we’ll just have to wait until they show their face. It’s a pain in the ass but we’re can’t exactly go hunting for them right now.” Seishi replied.

Phoenix shook his head, “I wish that was all we had to worry about. Think back, during Avarikh’s Invasion they were able to take control of you and that thing inside of you. What if they Twili have done the same?”

“Then the Lake Battle would have been a lot shorter, and we wouldn’t have this many survivors. Trust me, that’s not what’s happening,” Seishi answered quickly, but he could tell Phoenix wasn’t moved. “Look if it make you feel better I can send Ayala out on a search and destroy mission. Plus I’m sure Senshi will do so on his own once we tell him.”

Phoenix wasn’t sold, “It’s not enough. I want all of your forces on this. And I want you to bring all the Light Warriors up to speed. I don’t want to take any chances at this stage in the war.”

“Fair enough,” Seishi answered. “I’ll gather them all first thing in the morning. For now, let’s let everyone rest without one more thing weighing on their minds.

Hidden Kakariko- Training Grounds

“Hey,” the trainee called out as he ran towards the armored trainee from earlier. “Hey buddy!”

The armored trainee turned towards the other trainee and gave him an icy glare over his annoying over-familiarity. Though his helmets visor kept the energetic young trainee form noticing.

“Hey look, me and my buddies were thinking we don’t want to die in this war. And seeing as you and your friends are pretty tough, we were kinda hoping we could stick with you,” the trainee asked.

Summary:
Phoenix alerts Seishi to the Ma that Sirius had sealed away and are now likely lose. He’s worried the Twili might have captured them and may be controlling them and wants Seishi to call all the Light Warriors together in the morning. Meanwhile, Guerrier de Enfer from the Epoch War and host of the leader of those Ma has infiltrated the Special Forces and is starting to gain support with other trainees.

Tentatia /Evening 2

“Lord Dominium told us to contact their leader. Why are we going after this other person,” Decimari asked as they track down Simeon Ryssdal.

“Because you don’t know what I saw. Something happened to that man, something wonderful, something interesting. Something that I we definitely want to learn more about.” Tentatia answered as she latch on to Decimari’s and started caressing his chest. “Of course if you’re only worried out of jealously, stop. You’ll always be my favorite.

Summary:
The remaining two Noble Ma form Epoch are out to make contact with the Twili leadership, but instead go to seek about Simeon since Tentatia is curious about Umbra.

First, for a time, Darrel hobbled through the ragged camp of the survivors. A sea of tents strangled the single broad thoroughfare of this, the little city in the foothills. Truly little more than a large town, it was the quiet younger sibling of the capital, the second largest Hylian settlement perhaps along with Ordon in the south, which was overrun. The ragged civilian refugees were surprisingly few, interspersed here and there amongst the disorganized mess of soldiers from the lake. Many of the common folk had been lost--either to the Twili or to the undead in Castle Town. In all it was only the young or the very old, it seemed save for the occasional exception, had managed to escape. It was with those folk in particular that Darrel spent his time on his walk through town. Their camps--for the soldiers tried hard to hold their units together in the wake of battle even as the families strove to shelter together--varied in size and sprawled haphazardly through the open spaces. The way through the tents to the heart of town had been choked down to a winding serpent of a footpath.

Darrel still hurt... everywhere. The pain flared anew with every step and every breath. And yet he was alive, awake, and full strange sensations. Was it hatred he felt? Pity? Was he a creature of vendettas? Or an agent of the common good?

He stopped before a group of folk dressed in farmer's garb, with more dirt on them than even the meanest city survivors had. The woman didn't look well, and the man and his younger son crouched over her with worry creasing their foreheads. Each one held one of the woman's hands as they knelt beneath the canvas, and spoke in hushed voices until they noticed Darrel's shadow playing on their faces.

The younger man turned toward him, red-faced, but the older man spoke first and quickly, having noticed the knots of rank on Darrel's soiled surcoat.

"Apologies, m'lord," the older man said, raking a hand across his bald pate. "My Kati here, she was cut by one o' them Twee-lee fellas, pardon my 'nunciation. She got sick on the road o'er here and now she's feverish. She was out meetin' the trappers to buy hides for the tannery--I was a tanner from outside of Castle Town after all--when they attacked. Got caught in the open, she did, but she managed to get away by jumping in the river. My boy Alsen and I didn't know 'til they came to our house. We--"

Darrel held a hand up to quiet the man, steadying himself with only the other. "I'm sorry that this happened to you. The Twili have a great deal to answer for."

The man seemed surprised by that, as though after all the misery he was surprised to find kindness. Unsure of why, exactly, Darrel turned to a pair of soldiers who'd fallen into step behind him--it was easy to forget that he was a General now--and said:

"Bring this woman to Laynnei if you can. Bring Laynnei or one of the healers to her as soon as possible if you can't, and I mean that. We must care for the army, but we can't only care for them."

He moved on, unable to stay in one place, made strangely uncomfortable by the dying woman even as he felt it was critical for him to be around the people. He'd awoken with a strange clarity, a sudden understanding of what needed to be done. It was strangely simple, in a way, but it would require immense sacrifice.

He'd been right, of course--the Twili forces would strike the Hylians' last bastion before long. He'd thought the defenders would hold out longer at the Lake, maybe even long enough for them to pull in all of their forces and form a strong defense in the favorable terrain. Alas, they hadn't. Now the war was on their doorstep and there was nowhere safer to flee. Time and again the Twili numbers and their wicked crafts had taken those places away. They could only stand here, with what strength remained, and hope that a few chosen could find a way out. Meanwhile he could feel that passage to salvation growing narrower and more costly with each passing day.

Eventually he found his way to the command tent, the "war room" with its table of terrain maps and estimates of forces and positions, paths of attack and retreat, all carefully mapped out. It was far more extensive than Darrel's makeshift command tent in the eastern woods had been, and its numbers likely far more accurate and more depressing both. It still wasn't much. They didn't have much left. The number disparity had never seemed more stark than it did to Darrel as he reviewed the table, but it reinforced what he was feeling in his gut. A hundred-thousand strong was the interloper host, while the Hylians could field the barest fraction of that. It would take a miracle to survive. It would take threading the thickest of needles through the narrowest of holes.

And he was about to make that task more difficult still. There was no other choice.

Darrel turned to the other woman who'd taken up the slow trek behind him. Some fresh faced conscript it seemed. Features that should have been soft and elegant were contorted by stern anger written into her features long before he'd met her. A crooked finger brought her forward from the open tent-flaps where she'd remained upon his entry.

"Go rouse the command staff, Phoenix and the Paladin both, the king, and all of the remaining Light Warriors," Darrel said, his voice a low command even as he leaned toward her on the stability of a cane. "I don't care if they're deep in sleep. Rouse them all--tell them that General Mytura requires their presence. I don't dare wait, even a few hours until morning.

"I have a report for them from the field."

Summary: Darrel goes through camp, considering what the people have been through. He meets a man whose wife was injured in an attack and is now sick from her wound. Darrel gives orders for her to be tended to, then continues on to the war room/command tent. He reviews the maps on the table and gets depressed, then calls for all of High Command and the Lights to join him so that he can give his field report.

Ella was flabbergasted. Not only had she found someone who could understand her, she found someone with a time traveler in the family. What were the odds? Or perhaps it wasn't as unlikely as she first through. Perhaps in the future study into time manipulation had advanced enough that everyone and their grandmother considered time travel to be a cheap parlor trick Ella theorized. Regardless her hopes of returning to the Epoch Era just shot up a thousand fold. She really "knew how to pick 'em" as her father use to say.

“I’m sorry I guess that was a lot all at once. My name’s Ayala by the way.”

"No thats incredible Ayala! All of it" replied Ella with the same enthusiasm her new companion had just shown. "I can't tell you how much your helping me. My names Ella and I'd not from the future. Or present day I guess. Whatever. I'm from the year 1200. I don't know exactly how it happened, but somehow I've become trapped outside my own era. I have no way to get back so if your brothers a time traveler then I have to meet him. He might be the only chance I've got."

After awhile of searching around Ayala finally found her brother as darkness descended upon the village. Before she could speak Ella barged in ahead and started listening off questions.

"Ah so you must be the time traveling brother Ayala told me about. Listen I'll get out of your hair as soon as you can help me. I need a way to travel back in time to 1200 After Demise. In exchange I'll do anything you want".

Summary: A quick post just to prove I'm still alive. Ella replied to Ayala and the two go and find Senshi at night. Ella asks him to send her back to the Epoch Era and offers to do anything he wants in exchange.

The rise and fall of their breakneck flight sent Polaris into a trancelike state, his eyes falling closed as the ground below was a blur lost to the otherworldly speed with which Horus flew. In this in between state, the faces were multitude, crying out in varied states of agony again and again, each tormented howl muddied the path before them. They had been going about this all wrong.

Dumped unceremoniously on the turf, Polaris tried and failed to rouse himself at the incomprehensible chatter of those around him.

It was some time later that he found himself placed in what could only be a medical tent, Polaris could sense those around him, he felt the familiar presences of many a Light Warrior and smelt the sulfurous tang of The Kinslayer not far off. He rolled to his side and groaned before the tendrils of his Dusk Madness latched hold of his consciousness and pulled him back under.

????

It was getting dark, too dark to see and Polaris found himself in front of massive door knocking frantically as a long black Dusk cloud descended behind him. Polaris turned to face the oncoming threat only to have the door burst open in a storm of sand and wind, pushing the cloud back and back and back until it was so far that the General felt that the threat was over. Proceeding through the now open door, Polaris strode across a grand hall worn by age and thickly covered by hot sands. The far end of the room was open to the desert and the dunes spread as far as the eye could see. There was a low pitched moan echoing in Polaris’ ears as a piece of shadow broke away from the rest. The shadow took form, materializing into the sinuous body of a woman and cocked its head to the side quizzically.

The voiceless spectre strode forward with the grace and ease of a dancer as the figure drew closer and the moaning grew louder. Polaris found himself without weapon or magicks, unable to move himself from the spot on the cracked floor to which he was rooted.

The shadow was only a few feet away when one of the larger sand dunes rose up, taking the rough form of a massive golem. Roaring its challenge, the golem rushed the spectre.

Sand and Shadow clashed with all of the ferocity of a rockslide battering each other mercilessly. The sand golem drove its fist through the chest of the shadow, only to have the shadow close upon it, cutting off the hand which fell to the floor as blackened sand.

Time stood still, with the shadow frozen in motion, the golem turned to Polaris with its fhand reforming out of fresh sand, the beast spoke with a familiar voice.

”Time to wake up. Leave this dusky bitch to me.”

Medical Tent

A fine layer of crimson rime tinged paisley as it spread its way from the foot of the unconscious patient's bed. The temperatures were dropping while a robed medic looked over a chart.

“There’s not a damn thing we can do with him. All of our healing artes and potions have had no effect whatsoever on him.”

A second medic approached and peered over the shoulder of the first at the chart, “Damn shame really, I always heard he was a terror on the battlefield. Would have been nice to see him in action on our side. Perhaps it’s time to cut our losses on this one and divert the resources elsewhere. Let the old fish die.”

The first medic raised his hand, one finger raised to the tents roof as if he was about to speak some great, learned reply and the words died in his throat when he looked at the second medic. He flesh was purpling, his legs hardened and splintered. His upper half tilted forward and fell onto Polaris’ bed as his frigid death sentence snaked its way around his body.

Polaris

His eyes snapped open as he jerked awake, frozen bits of flesh and vitae were scattered about the bed he was in. Polaris chuckled lightly to himself and shook his head before swinging his legs off of the bed and rising to his full height.

”It seems my power, unchecked, went a bit haywire while I was out.. In other news, this "Old Fish” needs to speak to whomever is in command.”

Summary:

Polaris goes into sleepy fun time land and sees a weird fight between sand and shadow, wakes up after accidentally (?) killing a medic and asks to see the boss.

It seemed more was happening behind the scenes than originally anticipated. Jaden picked a hell of a time to put the drink on a hiatus. But it was good to be in good company and feel understood. Even if the war was looking terrible for his side.

“I figured out a while ago that Eridanus had ended up somewhere in the past, so I spent the past few months trying to figure out when he was, and how to get him back.”

He listened intently to Senshi, trying to follow where he was headed with this, and then he felt strangely when eyes were laid upon the letter he had in his hands.

“That thing was written by a leader of the Guardian Order from 1000 year ago. Even Eridanus isn’t that old, yet its address to him. It’s also addressed to you and someone named Elizabeth Bryce. ”

There's that feeling again. Who the hell is Elizabeth Bryce?

“As things stand now that impossible letter is the only clue as to what happened to Eridanus in the past. Which if we can figure out, maybe we could help him find his way. The problem is I can’t open it. There’s some kind of magic seal on it, which the best I can figure, will break for those it’s addressed to. So I have to leave this in your hands. If you can open it great, if not maybe Eridanus can and with luck nothing in there will make him flip out. Sadly I’m not sure I’ll be able to help any more in the matter. I’m being pursued at the moment so it’s not safe for me to stick around any of you for too long. On top of all of that, I think right now you may be the only of us left who’s sane and reliable enough to keep everyone together and relatively safe.”

Sane and reliable. That was the Jaden of six months prior. The sanity went after Elly left for the Sacred Realm with Kae, and had been checked out since he saw his betrothed drown in the icy waters of Lake Hylia hours earlier.

But he was still a uniter.

"I may run this one by my sister. If anyone can disenchant a complex seal, it's most likely her. Or the General himself, if it was originally meant for him. Thanks for the vote of confidence. None of this is easy, but we have to press on as best we can. Let me know if I can help with those pursuers or anything."

After apologizing profusely, Senshi handed Jaden a medallion. Jaden's eyes widened as he studied Senshi further. He seemed quite fatalistic, and concerned about many things.

"I'll make sure to return this when you return. We'll meet again, and we can exchange tales of our experiences. We've not lost yet, and we won't lose if folks like us are still around. I appreciate you entrusting me with this. Won't let you or the others down."

As Senshi left to handle his affairs further, Jaden kept looking at the letter in his hands and reading the lines of magic which sealed it. He felt momentary urges to drink, extreme anguish, impossible repentance, and a pit in his stomach every time he uttered the name Elizabeth Bryce.

He kept his pace up as he headed to the High Command tent, peering at the medallion in his other hand. Immense power came from it, and he hoped to have time to study it further after his debrief. Lifting the flap, he saw he wasn't the only one reporting. General Mytura was here. Walking over to him, Jaden slipped the medallion onto his chain and offered his hand.

"General, it's good to see you again. I apologize for my reckless actions at the Lake, and want to let you know my head's on straight. Time will come to mourn soon enough, but for now, let's win this war."

Summary: He sure hates being sober, but he has to be. After talking with Senshi, he gets thrown for a loop by the mysterious letter addressed to Polaris and to a woman named Elizabeth Bryce. He also is mystified by a medallion also given as a gift, and worried about Senshi a little given the concern he displayed prior. Heading to debrief with High Command, he greets Darrel upon entry.

For the bulk of the evening and on into the deep hours of night, Isaac situated himself in the corner at the end of the tavern bar. His stool was pushed back just past the cusp of the nearest lamplight, so that much of him was cast in shadows but for the flickers of flame that played across his features. He cupped the earthenware mug in his right hand, casually bringing it to his lips to let the bitter, tepid-as-piss ale wash down his throat as he surveyed the rest of the common room impassively.

The Hylian forces were a wreck, and even--or particularly--in a place like this it showed. There was a reek of darkness hovering around the edges of the soldiers' drunkenness this night. Desperation. Terror. It was the stench of men and women on the edge of giving up.

"'Nother round for yeh, sir?"

From the shadows, Isaac turned eyes like cavernous wells of flame, burning orange and black, on the man. He hated bartenders and tavern keeps. They were necessary to keep the folk of the land dulled and fat, but it was almost as though they were a special brand of vexing, as though sent from on high, from some trickster, to make mock of the rest of the world and its troubles. This man, though, was better than some at least.

He nodded and pushed his empty much across the top of the bar. The barkeep swept it up in big hands and headed for the ale barrels positioned further down behind the bar. Isaac watched him go for a moment until a snatch of conversation caught his ear.

"--heard General Mytura's back from out in the field. Came in all busted to hell with the rest of the Lake Hylia garrison, but he's already outta bed now and he's called together High Command. It'll be almost dawn by the time they get everyone outta bed if you ask me."

"Yeah? Well I heard that Captain Bryseis was so drunk when he got back that he almost started a fight with--"

A momentary tension coiled in his muscles when the word cut off, but quickly bled away when a newcomer entered through the front door and made for the other two speakers. This one was dressed as a military courier.

"What's the news, Nina?" one of the original two asked.

"Well you know they said that General Eridanus turned up with the lake garrison?" she asked, even as she stepped up to the bar beside them and beckoned for the barkeep to bring her a drink. First he swung down to Isaac's far end and deposited a sloshing mug in front of him, then went about pouring another. "Turns out it's not only true, but he's up already. I only heard it in passing, but sounds like he froze a medic to death while he was out."

"Hero save us..." one of the others murmured as he brought his own mug up to his lips. "General Mytura coming in a bloody mess from the battlefield, Captain Bryseis a mess of a different sort, and General Polaris finally turns up after six months and he's losing his grip? How in the shit are we supposed to win a war if they can't?"

Isaac drained his full mug of ale in several quick swallows and then slammed it down onto the bar, drawing all three sets of eyes in his direction. When he fixed them with his own, they flinched visibly.

"You're not," Isaac said flatly. "This war is over."

Swinging his legs around, Isaac dumped himself off of his stool and brushed past the group. He had no further interest in their conversation--he'd gotten what he needed from them. The Red Ice General was awake, and not only that but he was killing. Whether intentional or not, it didn't matter. Polaris had been exposed to the Dusk, and it was working through him. He was on an edge himself, it seemed to Isaac. As he began to teeter on that precipice, in which direction would he fall?

By this late hour, most in the sprawling, disorderly military and refugee camp had found their bedrolls if they had them. Those who didn't curled up where there was empty ground. Isaac paid them little mind but to step fastidiously through their midst. He hadn't traveled so far afield from the infirmary, having interests therein, and so he made the trip back swiftly enough to catch sight of the red-scaled Zora moving through the tents in the direction of the High Command pavilion.

"General Eridanus," Isaac called out as he angled his own path to intercept the warrior. He came to a stop directly in the Zora's path, standing eye-to-fiery eye with him as his lips curled in a rictus grin. "Good to see you've found your faculties; folk were starting to whisper about you around here and not all of it has been good. I imagine seeing you up and well will make them feel better--even give them some hope--so long as you don't do anything too... unusual. After all, you've been gone an awful long time wouldn't you say? Some might even say a suspiciously long time."

Summary: Isaac has been keeping his head down in a Hidden Kakariko tavern, soaking in the despair, fear, and hopelessness pervading the last bastion of Hyrule. Overhearing a number of Hylian soldiers gossiping about the return of long-absent commanders, Isaac learns that Polaris is awake. He quickly departs the tavern and intercepts Polaris as he's making his way toward the command tent.

Escorting his lady respectfully, Aris took a lightly brisk pace as he continued to head toward the High Command tent. He could see troops running throughout the camp looking for anyone and everyone. Something important was happening. So much for that debrief he had planned on helping Kae get through. He could see the concern accumulate in her face.

Looking up at him, Kae sighed and shook her head.

"Darling, this isn't looking so good. With so many soldiers rushing about the camp summoning so many to High Command, I only fear what requests may come. Our last stand must not happen in my home."

Aris nodded and took her hand, resolute. He wanted to say something, but he didn't want to stir her further than she'd already been. She was pretty worked up, and she'd also had a pitcher full of water after not having anything for a while. He could have sworn she ate something within the past day...

Kae saw Jaden file into the tent, and nudged against Aris to try to pick up the pace. He had to duck down to get inside while she strolled right in. Others had already made their way in, and Jaden was fully engaged with Darrel. Other high ranking military officials were making their rounds, and Meado from the Castle Town siege was drinking deeply from a flask, nursing the last drops from it. She wondered if Jaden let him borrow it. But something big was about to go down. She was ready to share what she'd seen and found.

She felt the Treant's presence outside, but in her haste did not stop to speak, and realized she had been error. Reaching out with her mind, she attempted to establish a link with it, since it most likely would not have fit in the tent.

"Friend, I apologize for not greeting you properly earlier. Thank you for following me, my family, and friends here. I promise you that I will not be leaving you out of this. You have a place here. They will trust me, and they will trust you. We both have roles to play in this world and in this conflict. Focus on my voice, my thoughts, as we all gather here together. Speak through me if you wish to do so. I will let everyone know that you have a voice within me."

Aris could feel the Scion establishing a connection, and he stepped out of the tent, seeing the Treant there. He smiled warmly and motioned for it to come closer.

"I too know what it is like to feel displaced. After this summit concludes, you have my ear for as long as you need."

Summary: Kae and Aris attempt to establish a connection with the Treant so that it can take part in the summit.

Maps and figurines, model representations of the real world. That's what the war looked like from High Command. None of the figurines had discernable faces. None of them bore the bloody visage of the men who fought and died. One of the pieces on the map represented hundreds. Companies, regiments, battalions. It was the whole that was seen from a distance, not the individual soldiers who marched into the butcher's grinder.

It was enough to make Darrel sick. A soldier from his earliest days, he'd never had a difficult time with the concept of sacrificing the part on behalf of the whole. Not with the concept. But now his marines were lost--likely slain to a man--and he was left wondering whether there was a better way.

There had to be a better way.

"That which you borrow, part and parcel, from the living I lay claim to, wholesale, from the dead." Grem's words taunted him. How could he not have known?

Some rustling from across the table brought his eyes up. The map was bleak; it bespoke certain defeat on the horizon and nowhere left to retreat to. Jaden ducking through the tent-flaps was a welcome distraction. In his hand he bore a large coin, white-gold and gleaming. Quickly as he entered he threaded a leather cord through it and draped the medallion around his neck. He came forward and extended an arm across the table. Shifting the hand which gripped the cane holding him upright, Darrel reached out and clasped the Sheikah's forearm.

"General, it's good to see you again," Jaden said. "I apologize for my reckless actions at the Lake, and want to let you know my head's on straight. Time will come to mourn soon enough, but for now, let's win this war."

"Win the war... right." Darrel murmured, glancing back down at the table between them. With a breath, he shook away the sight and met the future Chieftain of the Sheikah's violet eyes with his golden ones. "As to that, I have unwelcome news that I will wait to share until the rest of Command arrives. But as to your reckless actions, you owe me no apologies my friend. I'm standing here with a cane instead of my sword because of what one might consider reckless actions, and I'm lucky to be standing at all."

And for how much longer will I be able to do so? How much longer for any of us?

More rustling of canvas and two more figures entered the pavilion. Kae Bryseis, the wayward Scion of Nayru, and the immense celestial he'd met briefly at the far edge of the lake.

"Scion Bryseis," he said with a weary nod of his head. "The war effort has missed you these last six months. It is a relief to see you returned and back on your feet. I can feel dawn not too far off; I suspect the rest will be joining us before long."

And then we'll see...

Summary: Mostly a filler post. Darrel is contemplating the war from different and new angles when Jaden comes in. He acknowledges that they've all been reckless and made mistakes. Then Kae arrives and he indicates that dawn is near and the rest should be joining them soon.

Sirius' inner sanctum, housing a creature of dark, shadow tentacles, had been overtaken by the greater monster as Chamdar looked on.

Taden, launching himself up from the floor level, took hold of Lynn in hands of Blue Fire and raised her into the air. Cold hands held her splayed in mid-air before him as Taden's eyes sought Chamdar's own, looking up from below.

“Did you truly believe concealing the Cloak in your shadowmonger would keep it from me, Taliesin? Like so many times before, you sacrifice those around you in vain,” he taunted.

Lynn’s head flew back for rays of Ice and Light magicks to stream forth from her eyes and mouth as Taden raised a clenched fist. When he punched that hand toward the earth again, Lynn’s body flew forward, a crackling starburst of barely contained power hurtling into the beast that was Vera's shadow. The beast rocked back from the impact, its many sinuous limbs flailing as it gave forth a blood-curdling cry. All of the energies that Taden was shearing away from Lynn's body and soul detonated as she struck.

Chamdar acted immediately. Light poured forth from his free hand and his staff all as one, vaporous and low to the ground at first. It spread across the entirety of the sanctum's floor, a soft white mist filled with sparks and flashes. The beast, still staggering from the direct assault, ignored the light at first as it trembled in pain and rage. Only when the fog of light swirled around its legs did it seem to sense its touch and regain its sense of the moment. Tentacles lashed out at Chamdar, but he batted one away with his staff enveloped in an aura of crackling light. His free hand dove into the satchel at his hip and drew forth one of the glass orbs, this one the gray of a thunderhead.

He struck away a second tentacle and then held the orb of constructed magic aloft for Hothnight to see.

"Do not make the mistake of identifying my sacrifices and understanding their purposes, Hothnight. The Sheikah means nothing in the grand schemes." He thrust the orb down, letting it shatter beneath the billowing, luminous mist. "You make my job easier at every turn, though you've no idea how."

The flashes of light grew greater, more numerous and more violent within the mist, even as a wind kicked up in the sanctum. The light-cloud began to swirl and eddy as the winds brought it up from the ground and kicked it into multiple roiling masses of mist-light and crackling lightning--what the dragon girl had once named Winged Light. Cyclones formed out of the low-lying fog, rising into immense swirling pillars of light all through the sanctum, each throwing off bolts and scattering sparks everywhere. As the shadow-beast flailed in the midst of several cyclones, Chamdar directed the top of his staff at one in particular, farther away, and then jerked it toward Taden on the catwalk above. The cyclone of light shivered visibly and then swept across the chamber toward the Hated.

Summary: Chamdar observes as Taden regains the Hated Cloak segment of his soul, then unleashes a divine light mist that spreads across the chamber low to the ground. After rebuking Taden he throws one of the spheres he took from his vault down into the light fog and kicks it up into a dozen or so divine lightning-spewing cyclones, directing one in particular toward Taden while several others enclose Vera's shadow.

Sirius was not happy with the fighting inside his bedroom. The team couldn’t help but antagonize or attack one another, or in Lynn’s case, convert her into human ammunition.

They were hurting it, but Sirius had stepped back to observe while his would-be allies battled. The creature was already regrowing its limbs. It wasn’t like beasts of this reality, it would keep on growing forever until removed or locked away, or perhaps chopped into a million pieces, but that ran the risk of growing a million copies. He’d seen something similar before, when fighting alongside Vera. It dawned on him that she must have manipulated the situation, or captured the beast, or maybe it was all just a big coincidence.

Sirius felt a tentacle wrap around his waist as he spent time pondering, but it was all part of the plan. It pulled him in close, and a portion of the beast ripped open like a wound, revealing a hundred teeth among a festering mouth of sludge and acid. Sirius still held a number of the false-Yeti masks on his person and immediately slammed one down upon the wound-mouth. Immediately after he wrapped his lunar whip around the tentacle, slicing it clean off.

The beast had noticed him now. It turned its attention towards him, completely disregarding the rest.

“Well team, I think you’ve stayed over long enough. I was never one for parties anyway.” Sirius repeated the process on a second tentacle, slicing it off while firmly affixing a mask to the creature. It was a gamble but his prior experiences with these creatures told him that they absorbed energy even when hurt by it, and like a fat man exploding at a buffet, didn’t know when to quit.

Jets of powerful water came out of the ceiling, enacted by Bernard, pushing back Chamdar, Taden, and Lynn before any could react. In the chaos, Sirius did not see who still held the chest, but no longer cared. Whatever its contents, they were not important. And if they were, he could just get said contents back later.

He had now affixed every single mask to the creature, and it was bubbling up, looking ready to burst.

“Well everyone, I’m afraid this is where we part ways! Chamdar, you and I will certainly be needing to have more words in the future. You know the way back should you desire to return for more items you no doubt have stashed here without my consent. And now, goodbye!” Sirius snapped his fingers, and all four were teleported out of the room as the monster exploded, leaving only the tiniest flailing fragment of tentacle. A glass dome descended down over it, sealing tightly, causing it freeze in place in stasis, preventing regrowth.

Sirius reappeared in a nearby surveillance room, while the rest were sent out of the lab into hyrule. He didn’t know exactly where. Some place that wouldn’t kill them, at least not instantly. They were capable beings, they’d all sort it out.

Summary: Sirius overloads the creature with the fake yeti masks that he got from alternate realities. It bursts open, and leaves only a tiny piece behind, which he locks up in stasis. Taden, Lynn, and Chamdar are all teleported out of the lab. As I mentioned in chat, you guys decide amongst yourselves who has the chest and where each of you got teleported to.

"General Eridanus," Isaac called out as he angled his own path to intercept the warrior. He came to a stop directly in the Zora's path, standing eye-to-fiery eye with him as his lips curled in a rictus grin. "Good to see you've found your faculties; folk were starting to whisper about you around here and not all of it has been good. I imagine seeing you up and well will make them feel better--even give them some hope--so long as you don't do anything too... unusual. After all, you've been gone an awful long time wouldn't you say? Some might even say a suspiciously long time."

Suspicious..

Unusual…

Wouldn’t YOU say?

Whispers in his ear. The low plaintive moan of the shadow phantasm. The dry throated laughter of she who was both mistress of the sands and puppet master.

All this and more echoed in the Dusk ravaged mind of the General while he struggled not to lash out at those that scurried about. Ants to be crushed under foot, the whole lot of them. There was a time when they mattered, a time when he cared. He remembered that. But he couldn’t remember why. The ravenous embrace of Chaos seemed so much more alluring than that of the mundane. Order was what he needed and what he was driven to rebel against the most.

And yet… and yet, he found himself a tent flap away from revealing what he’d seen. What his Eye had revealed would, change things undoubtedly, for better or worse he could not say.

”Time is a funny thing Kinslayer, it doesn’t always change that which you expect. More often it does as it pleases and lets those beneath its station do as they wish until their time ends. For those forsaken few whom time takes notice, well… lets just say I’ve met Time, and she’s a bitch.”

Phoenix sighed to himself in the back annex of the Command Tent. Really, he thought this meeting unnecessary, or at least, he thought his involvement in it superfluous. The defense of Hidden Kakariko was of primary import. Seishi, who had joined him minutes prior, should be handling the Light Warriors. Or Darrel. But Darrel had called this meeting, and Phoenix had decided to be the interim. To absorb the ire of the rest of those pencil-pushing idiots on the High Command Council, and let the Light Warriors do what they had been gathered to do.

He pushed his way through the flap, followed by Seishi, and entered the main war room of the tent, to find Darrel and Jaden staring grimly at the war map, Kae and her new Celestial cohort (that would require some... investigation... but later, after the pressing issues of this whole damn war were dealt with) off to one side, Polaris and... was that Isaac Telamon the Kinslayer? Certainly unexpected... standing near the main entrance, as well as a few other stragglers in the shadows near the edges.

"Gentlemen, and ladies," Phoenix began, "I am pleased to see you've all managed to survive and regroup. We've lost too many already to this war; losing any of you would have been a grievous blow, and truth be told, we had thought some of you lost forever to us." He gave a meaningful look to Polaris and Kae. "But, that's the past now, whatever it may be, and we'll deal with all the repurcusions of our choices after we pull survival out of the threat of defeat and eradication." Here his meaningful glance shifted to include Jaden and Isaac.

"And don't mistake yourselves. We stands on the brink of annihilation, though I'm sure you realize this." He swept his arms to indicate the figures standing on the war map. Those which indicated Hylian forces were far, vastly outnumbered, though for the time being they were not, as yet, outmaneuvred.

"We can defend from here, Hidden Kakariko. The passages are narrow, and negate any advantages these damned Interlopers might gain from their numbers. But their magicks are a different matter, and their leader, Lord Grem, is... Well, to be frank, he seems an insurmountable foe."

As he scanned the gathered Light Warriors, he saw an expression on Darrel's face which concerned him. But he raised a hand to forestall interruption. "General Mytura, I know you've called this meeting. Some new intel to share? Please: The floor is yours. What have you learned, in your time harassing the enemy's front, and back, lines?"

Summary: The Second Light Meeting has begun. Darrel will share his new intel.

Sha’tive had found herself in the mess hall at a table with food. She was just moving on auto-pilot, trying to blend in by going about her day like everyone else. Knowing little beyond the hunger for power that consumed her when her hivemind was still strong, instinct led her to food. She supposed her body merely wanted to emulate the feeling of fulfillment from a good meal; Problem there was that the food before her was terrible and she wasn’t hungry, she was still quite full from her last meal. She sighed at her mistake before starting to force herself to eat it to remain without suspicion. She was startled out of this autopilot as a cup of Chateau Romani slammed onto the table. Horus soon followed, sitting across from her.

“Oop, sorry about scaring you.” He chuckled as he relaxed in his seat.

“It-It’s fine.” She stammered in response.

“Hate to start a conversation on an untactful foot, but you look like hell. You’re the woman who helped me out earlier right?”

Sha’tive nodded as she ate some soggy broccoli.

“So what’s the story on you then?” he pried, taking a gulp of his drink.

Sha’tive’s eyes darted away as fake tears formed in her eyes. She had been brewing an easy but workable story in preparation for such a question. She hoped her acting backed the story up as her lip lightly quivered.

“Those undead out there…They killed my entire family right in front of me and then just left…I’ve been wanting to be rid of them ever since…But I couldn’t just go and do it alone, so I joined the army. I’d complain that the Twili army was probably going to cut my dream of revenge short, but it’s not going to matter much longer…”

“Ouch…That’s rough, indeed…”

“Yeah…I can still hear their screams in my sleep…’ She shivered bitterly. ‘…Well, since we’re on the subject, why are you in?” Sha’tive hoped to shift the conversation away from herself to maintain the charade.

“The Twili dropped an ice ball on my dad. So I got pissed, left home and here we are.”

That story gave her barely any time to develop her own story further.

“Not worse than yours of course, but still. It’s a reason…” He finished.

The meeting immediately plunged itself into awkward silence as the two of them sat at there, consuming what they had brought to the table. Sha’tive found herself quite uncomfortable as Horus refused to look away from her as he drank his alcohol. Unable to finish the meal without feeling sick, she decided to leave the rest for Horus, pushing her plate to him before getting up.

“Well…I can barely stand this food. Not to cut this lovely yet awkward meeting short, but I need to go lie down. The state of things and remembering my parents has left me…Out of sorts.” She dismissed herself from the table.

“Before you go, I just have one itty bitty question…” Horus responded, looking into her eyes.

“W-what is it?” Sha’tive asked, wiping her dried tears from her cheeks as she sat back down and turned to face him.

Horus’ eyes narrowed and his previous demeanor disappeared, the very air around them hushing still as he began controlling it around them.

“How long did you think that disguise was going to work, Twili?”

Sha’tive broke into a cold sweat as she silently gasped sharply, her entire body seizing up in a self-induced flinch. She looked back at Horus, her eyes wide with shock.

“H-how dare you! Do you actually think I’m…I’m-“

“I could smell your stench the moment we met…I always thought it was just the Twili who I was fighting, but no…The stench remains, especially around you.”

“I can’t believe you! Even after I helped you and-“

“You have five seconds.” He cut her off coldy, his voice grave and low before downing the rest of his drink.

Sha’tive’s feet were like concrete as she found herself already on her feet, yet unable to move, her hands cupped over one another over her mouth as real tears streamed down her face.

“H-how?”

Horus rose to his feet, reaching for the handkerchief that wrapped around her face and effortlessly pulled it off, revealing the onyx flesh that covered the upper half of Sha’Tive’s face. He briefly sniffed it, a hint of rose and copper wafting from it.

“…This belonged to one of my friends. She was a foot soldier who joined the war against her parent’s wishes. Her greatest wish was to be at the very least with her family again before she died. Her name was Rosie Ellifain, and you wear her only keepsake like a trophy!?”

Sha’tive slid back, finding it ironically hard to breathe as she realized her plan was crumbling before it could even get going. Horus’ frown deepened as his anger came to surface level.

“Five.” He whispered, exaggerating his mouth movements so Sha’tive knew exactly what he said as he tucked the handkerchief away in his pouch.

The Twili woman finally found her feet as her thoughts went blank in panic. She ran as fast as she could out of the tent. She knocked over a soldier who had been patrolling just past, making both of them stumble to the ground. Ignoring the soldier’s indignant grumbles at her, Sha’tive scrambled ungracefully back to her feet and kept running as fast as her legs could carry her.

“Four.” Horus positioned himself parallel to the tent’s exit as he casually reached for his bow.

Sha’tive’s inelegant blubbering had become desperate as the last shards of her hivemind ability allowed her to just barely hear Horus’ countdown. She ran by several horses that were enjoying some hay, nearly tripping over a water trough as she kept scrambling away.

“Three.” Horus examined his bow, making sure it remained undamaged from wear that may had been suffered the previous day. He rested the bow on his left leg as he reached for an arrow in his quiver.

Sha’tive’s mad run ceased as she realized she had been stopped by guards who immediately noticed her Twili features, their spears trained at her. She pulled her sword, licking and wetting it with her magically poisonous saliva. Disgusted, the guards immediately took the offensive.

“Two.” Horus pulled the cork off of a small vial while holding the arrow in his mouth. Taking said arrow in his free hand, he dipped its head into the concoction inside. As the purple liquid reacted to the steel, a spark of magic spewed out of the vial, just barely touching Horus’ cheek before daintily drifting to the ground. The arrowhead glistened a pure white as it was pulled from the potion, a subtle blue aura around it as Horus carefully closed and placed the vial back into his belt loop.

Sha’tive’s efforts were useless as her panic found her nearly instantly bested by a spearman who had been standing in her blind spot. They promptly restrained her, though with great difficulty as she thrashed against them before turning her back around to bring her to a cell.

Horus, careful to not touch the arrow’s tip placed it upon his bow as he took aim, pulling the string taut as the feathers of the arrow brushed his cheek. He inhaled deeply, taking in all of the displaced wind that Sha’tive’s mad dash had caused, approximately determining her position.

“One.”

The arrow flew true through the tent’s exit, just over the toppled soldier’s head, under the throats of the horses, just over the trough of water, through line of sight of a passerby who was reading and walking before finally coming at rest, plunged deep in Sha’tive’s naval. As the magical concoction took effect, her screams shattering the relative silence, heard even from within the High Command tent. Horus emerged from the tent, slowly walking towards the site of his work. The guards who had restrained her had backed off, appalled by what had just taken place before their eyes. Sha’tive stood there with her arms tied behind her back, her teeth grinding painfully as she grit them hard. It was all she could do as the whole of her anatomy below the arrow’s resting place had been converted completely to ice.

“The tricky part was figuring out how to convert blue fire into a liquid state that wasn’t too volatile or inert before I had the chance to use it.’ Horus said to himself out loud.

He briefly grinned at his work as he glanced at the men and women who had managed to stop Sha’tive. They all glared at him in disapproval. Horus frowned back.

“Don’t worry everyone, she’s also magical undead like the rest of those disgusting wretches. She’ll grow them back as long as you don't destroy her head.”

“Grow what back?” the guard to Horus’ right asked, further appalled by his choice of words.

Horus responded by pulling the arrow out of Sha’tive, causing the start of her transition to ice to crack and break. She groaned pitifully as she felt her torso slide away from the rest before Horus stopped her fall by grabbing her by the breastplate.

“I’ll be taking her to the meeting.” Horus stated plainly before walking off to the High Command tent with Sha’tive in tow, leaving the guards with a frozen pair of legs to deal with.

"Ah so you must be the time traveling brother Ayala told me about. Listen I'll get out of your hair as soon as you can help me. I need a way to travel back in time to 1200 After Demise. In exchange I'll do anything you want".

Senshi leaned over to look pasted the strange woman and glare at his little sister who was standing behind her trying to look innocent. He could image what she had told her and it likely involved things that were supposed to be a tightly kept secret. He couldn’t help but worry that one day her kind heart over eagerness to help people would bite her in the ass. His only comfort was did tend to be a good judge of character, most of the time anyway.

“Look, I’m not sure what my sister told you, but I’m not a time traveler. In fact I’ve recently learned it’s something I should never do,” he said to the woman before addressing his sister. “Nor should you, actually. The Angels react poorly to it which doesn’t go well for the host.”

He could see the disappointed fall over Ella’s face. She was about to walk away but Senshi quickly stopped her, “Wait. I didn’t say I couldn’t help. I actually have been researching a way to open a portal to different times. It should work but there are just two catches. I don’t have enough magical power to sustain it, and I haven’t figured out how to aim it. The first problem can be solved if you can convince one of the two scions to help. As for the second, I suppose a powerful enough psychic could peer into whatever time I’ve opened a hole to and then help me adjust. Of course all the people that could help are busy with the war effort, and I’m no different. So if you want this to happen you may have to wait until the fighting is over, and make the effort to get them to help.”

“See I told you he could help,” Ayala cheerfully proclaimed “We just need to win the war, and convince Chamder my mother to help. Honestly I think we can have you home in a week.”

“I hate to say it but Bryseis is probably the better option. She may flake out from time to time by she’s not as disconnected from the world as Taliesin. Also Lia Chiaria is back, she’d be a better choice for a telepath do to… reasons. Regardless you two should get some sleep. There will be a meet up first thing in the morning and it’s everyone best interest if you attend.” He said waving them off.

They were about to leave when Ayala suddenly remember something due to Senshi’s mention of Lia, “Hey Ella, you go on ahead. I have to talk to my brother about something.”

“I wasn’t talking about Ithan,” She said, prompting a confused look from he brother. “Earlier today when I said I had to tell you something. You thought it was about Ithan, it wasn’t. It was about Cena, she’s back in Hyrule.”

Senshi froze in shock for a moment. He hadn’t heard anything from or about her since she decided to stay behind in Termina. Not even from Phoenix who usually made a point to traveling there for an annual festival ever had any news about her. He had come to the point of assuming she’d become mortal and passed away like so many others he’d come to care about over the years. To hear she was still alive nearly overwhelmed him with long buried emotions.

Ayala continued once she figured Senshi had regained enough of his composure to listen, “She’s back with the Kokiri, in fact she was the one who took care of me after I was poisoned. She wants to see you again, she just didn’t know you were back in Hyrule until she saw me and then we’ve all been a little busy since then so… Look I know you’re about to do something stupid. I know because I can tell because you’re in that gloomy sacrifice yourself for everyone else mood. So just make sure survive.”

Summary:
Senshi tells Ella that Ayala may have over sold his ability to help, though things aren’t hopeless. He thinks he has a way to send her back but he’ll need help from Kae or Chamder and Lia or Laynnei. Ayala, worrying her brother his back in martyr mode tells him Cena is alive and well and back in Hyrule so he’ll have more motivation to not get himself killed.

"General Mytura, I know you've called this meeting. Some new intel to share? Please: The floor is yours. What have you learned, in your time harassing the enemy's front, and back, lines?"

He drew a heavy breath, still leaning fully on the cane to hold himself upright, he cast his gaze around the room. The rest waited with seeming patience--even Kinslayer, who leaned against a tent pole behind several others, his face obscured by shadows as he looked on silently. What was he doing here? And in the company of Polaris, of all people? Had the Red Ice General succeeded in taking him prisoner? Did he have intel to share that could explain his presence? He would have to wait and see. For the first time in a long time, Darrel was faced with a situation that overwhelmed even his deep-seated need for redress.

"Thank you, Phoenix," he said in a low tone. With his free hand he rested against the edge of the table. "Most of you know what Jaden and I have been up to for the last six months. While the Twili have been sitting in the desert, consolidating their position and preparing the move, Jaden and I, along with our teams, have been striking every outpost and supply train we could, as well as taking out scouts and outriders. We did all we could to cripple their ability to muster and march--but we all also knew that any successes we achieved would be short-lived. The Twili have finally uprooted en masse from the desert. They've taken Lake Hylia--at great loss to both sides, but worse for us because we didn't have the numbers to begin with--and even now they'll be securing the heights."

He looked to Phoenix, who appeared as weary as Darrel felt.

"You're right. We do stand on the brink of annihilation, and the situation is worse than you know," he continued. His mouth was dry as he considered his words. He knew they would not be received well. "The truth of the matter is..."

"That which you borrow, part and parcel, from the living I lay claim to, wholesale, from the dead."

"The truth is, the war is already lost." He gave the words a moment to sink in, and then pressed forward before anyone could interrupt him. "I have faced Lord Grem twice now. The first time, with the aid of Horus and Captain Bryseis, I was lucky enough to score a blow that gave us a chance to escape--at best a stalemate. Grem was strong, fierce. You called him insurmountable, Phoenix, and I fear we're getting closer and closer to you being right.

"The second time I faced Lord Grem was just yesterday at the lake. I was angry, and emboldened by my earlier escape and the success that our teams had had against his forces. I struck at him. Hard. The blow should have cleaved him open from hip to shoulder, but it didn't. He was stronger this time than he was even six months ago. Strong enough to best not only myself in single-combat, but General Polaris also, and with an ease that should not be ignored."

Another beat of silence to let that fact sink in for those who'd not witnessed.

"I understand something now about Lord Grem and the Twili invasion that I couldn't have before. None of us could have known what was really happening, battle after battle, ambush after ambush." Another deep breath. "Lord Grem is like me. Or I'm like him, maybe. I draw strength from the spirits of the living, and I give strength back in turn. The strength of will inherent in the living human soul is my power.

"Not so with Grem. What I borrow in slivers from the people around me, he rips away and steals in its entirety from the fallen. Lord Grem has grown strong on the souls of the slain, and the more who die the more powerful he becomes. I'm not certain he cares, ultimately, about even the success of his army. If we hold the passes, force them into a bottleneck, and slaughter them in droves... he still wins."

"How do you know this?" To Darrel's surprise, it was Kinslayer who voiced the question.

"Lord Grem said as much himself, as he cast me--broken--onto the ice. But in retrospect, I always felt something dark in Grem, as though I could myself sense the innumerable souls chained to his will. I suspect I cannot be the only one who has felt it. Regardless, this is the truth of the matter and it raises an important point." He looked deliberately around the room, meeting every eye present. He owed them all that much, when so much of Grem's strength could be laid at his feet. He only hoped that they would see the veracity of his claims. "I no longer believe that we can continue to prosecute this war as we have been. We cannot continue to lend greater and greater strength to Lord Grem by joining battle against his army. Eventually, if we continue to do as we've been doing, we will reach a point at which Lord Grem will have exceeded all our capacity to defy him. And while I don't know what he's after, I'm certain we can't let him have it.

"The war, as we've been fighting it, is over. Now we have no choice but to look for an alternative, and I pray that we find one before the hour glass empties."

Summary: Meeting-y things. Darrel just raises some concerns and questions the entire course of the war up to this point and going forward. NBD.

She continued to process everything Darrel said at a rapid pace. The visions she had been having during her recovery revealed a solution that would trump even the darkest forces.

"General Mytura, thank you for your insight and knowledge. I would agree that our outlook is quite poor, but not hopeless. What is the name of this alliance of Light Warriors and others present?"

Looking around, her pulse quickened when she noticed Isaac. She went pallid for a moment before her brother replied to her.

"Sis, it's the Daybreak Alliance. What are you getting at? This war is on a one way trip to destination fucked. Grem is a dynamo of destruction and nothing we have can hurt him. You heard Darrel."

Kae sighed and covered her face with her palm before continuing.

"I understand how you feel. All of you. Again, this may sound crazy. But in my vision, I saw a black hole among the stars consuming all. But I saw all of us working together, making the stars right, and creating a supernova that destroyed Grem and all of his savagery. That supernova of our alliance is the completion and utilization of the Daybreak Sword. We must forge it. And I must take it up to destroy him."

Snickering and laughter echoed in various corners of the tent. Kae had been a liability in nearly every duel she fought in this war. Ended every battle in a hospital bed that they knew of. Nearly killed herself on more times than that. She was a supernova in her own right. Very unpredictable even with all of her magic and intelligence.

Aris roared up to defend his Lady.

"She speaks the truth! I fought by her side in the Sacred Realm against a fallen angel and banished him to the Nether. We prevented an invasion, and Rauru granted her loan of the Light Medallion, which stems the divine affliction that sought to claim her life. If Sourbeneton had corrupted the Light Temple, Grem would have had another very willing ally in his campaign. Nayru rest her soul, Lady Shea also fought bravely with us in our time there and at the Lake. Trust the Scion. She is not wrong!"

Summary: Kae urges the group to stick to the plan of forging the Daybreak Sword. She also says that she must face Grem with it. This caused immediate skepticism and mild ridicule from the crowd. Aris spoke up to defend her and speak of her track record over the past time in the Sacred Realm.

Lia stood silently while the rest spoke. She could hear echoes of what Ithan would do throughout her mind. Speak up, interject, offer ideas. Contrary to the beliefs of the ignorant, twins didn’t always match one another in personality and approach to life. She was more one to stand back and absorb her surroundings, offering input only when the time felt right. Ithan would have taken charge, or tried to. Of course, they did have one thing in common, and that was the need to help their allies in any way possible.

Looking at all the powerful forces around her, she determined that standing beside them in battle might be beneficial, but bolstering their strength would be far superior.

No one had paid her much attention. She’d made her presence known since arriving the previous night, but had only spoken with Senshi. The others were either too unfamiliar with her, or too distracted with their own troubles to offer much conversation. Now though, the time for inclusion was right. She needed to offer what strength she had.

“If I might have a word with the group.” Lia spoke softly, but used her telepathic abilities to make the words capture the attention of the group. “I have little to say on the matter of the sword you seek. However, when it comes time to face the enemy, I-” She paused. “Allow me to back up a moment. For those who do not know, my brother Ithan fell to the hands of an ancient enemy in the forest, only a few days ago. Whatever the fate of his soul is, it seems in his final act, he transferred his power to me. I can enhance everyone to be twice, three times, four times as powerful. Those of you who know me well, knew Ithan’s power, and mine. What I have now is greater than what either myself or my brother had separately. As part of that power, I can take us anywhere in this land that is not magically protected within moments. If that skill would assist in the piecing together of the sword, then it is at your disposal in its fullest capacity.” She finished speaking, having nothing more to add, and returned to being a subtle background element of the group.

Summary: Lia says hi to the group, offers to buff everyone to quadruple strength in the coming battle, and offers her teleportation services for putting together the sword.

Polaris listened intently to those who spoke before him, fully blocking out the creeping Dusk for the briefest of times. The plague temporarily forestalled, he closed his eyes at the revelation of Ithan’s demise and stepped forward when Lia had finished.

”I’m sure the questions many, if not all of you, have for me are multitude. We will get to those in time. For now, I wish to offer my condolences to you,” pausing, the General turned fully to face Lia and inclined his head slightly before turning back to the group at large. ”And offer my views and opinions into what has been discussed thus far.”

Stepping away from the entrance and the lurking presence of the Kinslayer, Polaris strode a few steps forward and rested his hands lightly on the back of a chair. ”In my recent travels, I…” gaze settling on Jaden, he hurriedly redirected his line of speaking. ”I had a blessing of sorts bestowed upon me deep within the bowels of the underworld. This, blessing, allows me a measure of insight that I once was lacking.”

He heaved a deep sigh and ran his webbed hands across his face. ”I wish I could dispute what Darrel or Kae have said, but I cannot, for I have seen the faces of the damned swirling in the depths of the accursed river. Yesterday I beheld those same tormented souls crying out from the depths of the Lord General’s armor. He fights with the strength of thousands. Each death only feeds that juggernaut. I suggest we initiate evasive measures and diversions. No more killing. Subdue the enemy and fall back. Take prisoners where you can, run like hell where you can’t.”

Letting that set in for a moment, and odd sensation crept over him, causing the General to look over his shoulder to the tent flap. Only Isaac and those others who had been there moments ago. And yet, he felt something. Someone. Nodding, Polaris raised his voice above the din.

”I will speak at length about walking the Circles of Hell and other, less savory places later. I’ve been inside the Dusk Warp and the experience was… unsettling to say the least,” Raising a hand to forestall any questions, he added, ”Now though, I can’t help but notice that our number is diminished. Take heart,” Jaden wasn’t looking at him at just this moment, but his eyes fell on the young Bryseis all the same, passing over him before the future Chieftain noticed, ”An ally approaches.”

Summary:

Polaris addresses those gathered. Says don’t kill anybody and then senses the approach of an old face.

Farmer Colm was covered in all sorts of undead sludge. He had managed to escape the hordes, and he had help from somewhere. But he was feeling quite sick, and quite tired on top of it all. Glad to be home, he stripped down and grabbed the makeshift bucket he'd cobbled together to get some water from the spring.

Colm really had it all in his hidey-hole. A spring with water of average cleanliness, a small patch of dirt he'd managed to start growing some beans in, and just enough sunlight to not feel completely stuck in a cave. Sure, he had to use a little bit of the trade secrets passed down from father to son for six generations, but he was able to put a subsistence lot together. It was with these trade secrets that he felt he could save Hyrule if the Crown somehow managed to win this war and get rid of the zombies. They'd need crops. Good crops. The kind that can sustain a moderate population while livestock and other economies recover.

As he scrubbed the mire and viscera off of his frame, he kept hearing things above ground. Another zombie horde was on the move...

There was fighting above. The living were attacking the zombies. Maybe it was animals. Maybe it was scouts, or a small unit. Either way, he was glad that the dead were dropping. Things went quiet before too long, and the familiar scent of night air wafted in commingled with the stench of undeath.

Slipping his night clothes on while soaking his zombified rags, he heard a voice, and it startled him terribly, causing him to swing at the darkness repeatedly, hoping he hit something.

"Resourceful...you have crops..."

Colm couldn't see who or what was down here.

"Show yourself! You'll never get my food, Interloper scum!"

Walking out into the light, a very short, lithe Sheikah woman stood non-threatening. Her armor was completely tattered, her weapons notched and damaged, and her eyes completely bloodshot. The armor did its job, as she didn't seem to have any blood on her that belonged to her. No cuts, scratches, or bites. Definitely not a zombie. Her hair was tightly tied back, and her mask plate was dented badly.

"Interlopers do not wear the Weeping Eye, farmer. I can take you somewhere safer than this. But you could wait out this conflict for years with this setup. Growing crops in a grotto...of this quality...in a matter of weeks...Clan Colm?!"

The farmer raised an eyebrow and chuckled.

"Of course the Shadow Folk know of my family. Conor Colm, at the Crown's service. But how did you find me?"

He thought he'd been forgotten about, which is why he ran off on his own. He hoped his wife and children were alright. However, now was not the time to ask about that. There was finally hope in horribly dark times.

"Conor, it's time to go. We travel under the cover of night, and we have a distance to go. We go to my home. Leave the crops. Someone else might find this place and need the sustenance. Take enough for a day's walk."

The farmer found a notched kunai in his left hand all of a sudden, and he sighed. He really hoped he didn't have to use it again. Grabbing his hoe and sickle, he followed the Sheikah woman out of his grotto one last time. After the war, he'd need to build near this. The hidey-hole would make a great secret basement...

"By the way, I didn't get your name, Sheikah."

When they rose above ground, they both felt the bitter chill of night, and the woman took her good long time responding, moving with extreme quiet.

"Sheikah Lieutenant Senior Grade Elly Alysi Shea."

Responding in a hushed tone, the farmer expressed his gratitude, but could hear very irregular breathing, and could see her gait full of stealthy staggering. She was concealing a lot of pain, and he could also hear her heart beating oddly.

There were so many dead zombies...from that point on, they only spoke to one another when avoiding patrols, hordes, and beasts.

Dawn 3

Toward the mountains and craggy terrain. They just kept moving toward it, and it boggled the farmer. But he couldn't ask questions. It was somewhere safe. But where exactly was it? The Sheikah looked fatigued beyond belief; that she hadn't slept in nearly two days or more. She was searching for a way in.

Elly found exactly what she needed. One of the tight corridors that had a fashionable optical illusion, as though it were just a thin cleft in the hillside. Insanely difficult to squeeze through, but what Colm saw on the other side baffled him further. It was a tent city surrounded by many domiciles and other buildings. The architecture was quite stark and plain. Very few frills. Was this how the Sheikah really lived, minus the tents? Was he in...the real Kakariko?

"My people have an infirmary down the fourth drag. Head there. I have personal business to attend to, but I will meet up with you there. Get checked out. You don't look too bad, but you should probably get looked over for zombie-related injuries."

The farmer extended his hand with kunai handle facing Elly.

"Thank you, Elly. You were sent by Farore herself. I promise I won't let you or Hyrule down."

It was there that the two split up, and Elly started to walk more irregular. She stumbled about, but somehow was able to avoid drawing too much attention to herself. She saw a giant tree creature focused on listening to something inside the largest tent of the lot.

So things got so bad that the Hylians set up a tent city in her home town. Great. Now everyone knew where she lived and what her people did. There was no mystery anymore. But times called for the most desperate of measures. It was in this cleft of the rock that the Royal Family had facilities to prepare a last stand or to wait out decades of a siege. As the sun crept over the rocky horizon, she heard familiar voices talking. Jaden. Kae. Polaris. Darrel. Everyone was here. She knew that her presence would disrupt the meeting. From the tone in Jaden's voice, she could tell that he thought she was dead. He was grief-stricken. And sober.

Lithely rolling under the first layer of tent, she crouched behind a few crates in one of the corners. Then she heard Polaris mention an ally approaching. How had he seen her in the back?

"Shea here."

Elly walked over to the same table that Jaden and Darrel were huddled around and saluted. It took everything in her power not to dive at her betrothed and hug him until her arms froze up, but she had to be respectful. Everyone of importance in the Hylian Army was present. She could see the same look in Jaden's eyes that she had in her own. He was relieved, but he couldn't cry out with joy. His eyes were glassy and his lip twitched a bit as she stealthily slipped her hand into his under the table.

Sure, she looked terrible, but she wasn't dead.

"Thank Farore you've returned to us, Elly. We all thought the worst."

Summary: Elly somehow managed to survive the frigid wastes of Lake Hylia, and escaped impossible odds. She tracked one of Hyrule's agricultural experts and kept him safe from the hordes of zombies for nearly two days before bringing him back to Hidden Kakariko. Oddly, she is drawn to the largest tent in the makeshift tent city that had been constructed while she was away, and sneaks into the meeting. However, she is detected by Polaris and reveals herself shortly thereafter. How the heck did she manage to live through all of that?

As he stood up from the cold earth, he realized he had changed form again.

The pale line of dawn over the distant trees meant he had time still to gather his bearings. He was at the Lake; it was not for the first time. Above him, a circle of carrion fowl awaited the feast of bones that lay across the shore. He was on a small mud island with a tall, dead tree that stretched into the overcast sky. Ice was all around him. A moribund breeze wafted over the dunelike frozen waves, swirling tufts of white powdery frost from their crests. His vision was blurred from the transportation, but all about him he felt the lingering stench of recent bloodshed.

He fell to his knees. His hands pressed firmly into the grey mud, his pale blue fingers cracking the frost that stiffened the trodden blades of grass. Black wrappings coated his hands up to the knuckles, and stretched back from there into a continuous garment that folded over his mouth and nose. He had come a long way only to find himself back here, and yet this time…

“The final relic…is at hand.”

As the words fell from his lips, he knelt upright and examined himself. The Hated Cloak fell about his shoulders and waist in the militaristic fashion of a black, double-breasted riding coat, its thin epaulets glinting silver in the early light. Its thick leather lapels stretched up past his long ears, lupine hair lapping along their edges in thick locks. Sheathed beneath it, the curved longsword Aurgelmir hung at his hip, the Hated Knife clipped to his belt opposite that. The demoneyed Yeti Mask sat strapped to his right shoulder, the Medallion of Storms engraved within, glaring east at the crowning dawn with primordial fury. Taden’s eyes, though, were softened.

He looked down at the palm of one hand and felt, for the first time in living memory, whole--or close to it. The madness that had ripped him across the hither and yon of Hyrule would soon to come to end—he could taste it, and with its passing, a future in which his will were not sundered across the shoals of time. Now just one fragment of his former self lay between him and the journey home: to the sanctity of his adopted Yeti tribe, and to the solitude of Snowpeak after that. He felt the hand of Jotun clapped on his shoulder in the wooden weight of the mask, and for a moment felt he were back on the peaks of Snowhead, the wise old shaman wrapping a wooly arm around the thin frame of the boy he once was, when he was first exiled there. But no more.

He brought his outstretched hand to his face, and wiped the tears from his eyes that the sudden warp had jostled loose. He got to his feet. No longer would he shrink under the guise of boyhood; with the Hated Cloak restored, his stature was returned to that of a young man. With the Coin, the Knife, and the Cloak, his sorcery, strength, and stealth had been renewed. Now only the last memories of his former self remained without, hidden somewhere in the vastness of Hyrule, incased in the simple Monkey Mask he had brought from Termina so long before. And with the Hated Cloak, some whisper of its most recent bearer’s memories came within.

Out of the corner of her eye she caught sight of an unassuming item. Everything else here was well cared for and kept polished and stitched. This simple thick coat hung tattered over a dull mannequin. She stepped toward, wondering what powers such a boring thing could hold.

When she touched it, she felt cold, and breathed out a small cloud of steamed breath. Intriguing!When she took it from the mannequin and slung it over her back, the chill increased, and her toes and fingers were numb with chill.

When she slid her arms through the sleeves, her body locked, unable to move, as if frozen, and she saw a tall mountain sheathed in ice. She looked at it, and the light was warped, as though looking through a thick sheet of glass. Like looking through ice.

She tore the coat from her back and threw it to the ground, gasping breath through her lungs as she freed herself from the crushing grasp of that glacier. But she knew already. It was ecstatic, that chill. It was exciting. It was... sexy.

It was meant for her.

Taden could sense the final piece of his long awaited puzzle in the imminent future, as if it were within reach at the present moment. A chill ran down his spine at the thought. And with Lynn's memories in mind, he knew just how to lure it out.

OOC: Taden teleports to Lake Hylia just before sunrise, and finds himself woozy after the teleportation. He cannot see well and struggles to stand, but eventually recognizes that he has progressed in age and gained new attire after absorbing the Hated Cloak from Lynn. He now has three out of the four Hated Relics in his possession--the Hated Cloak, the Maskmaker's Knife, and the Storm Medallion (embedded in the Yeti Mask). He sets out to gather the final artifact, sensing that it is close at hand.

The stone and dirt were hot beneath his palms as Chamdar pushed himself back up to his hands and knees.

So Sirius had grown tired of their contest and had banished him. Likely he had banished all, though Chamdar saw neither of the other two. It was no great surprise in any event, the aged spellcaster mused. Sirius had ever been a jealous guard over the products of his inventive mind. It had been no small thing, in days gone by, to convince him that the aegis of Chamdar's effects was a benefit to all. It was of no moment; Chamdar had gained that which he needed, and was now content to proceed as the principles circled slowly inward toward the endgame.

As day broke in the east, Chamdar rose to his feet and brushed the mountain dust from his cassock. Hear the heat of the blasted mountain at his back could be felt, but it masked a yet more sinister incalescence anon, and beyond even that a growing chill.

He trudged slowly down the steep highland road, sensing a convocation of power to the mountain's base.

Isaac Kinslayer - Hidden Kakariko High Command - Early Morning Three

"I understand how you feel. All of you. Again, this may sound crazy. But in my vision, I saw a black hole among the stars consuming all. But I saw all of us working together, making the stars right, and creating a supernova that destroyed Grem and all of his savagery. That supernova of our alliance is the completion and utilization of the Daybreak Sword. We must forge it. And I must take it up to destroy him."

That was the final piece. Isaac had a clear view of the board now as it was arrayed for the final moves. The Lights meant to pursue their weapon, in the hopes that its power would be enough to avoid total annihilation.

Isaac, of course, had no fear of that end.

On silent feet, he backed away from the table and slipped deftly through the tent flaps. He cared little for war table discussions of battle strategy, troop movements, and the like. He had the broad strokes of it now; he knew the singular belief upon which all of their hopes rested.

And he knew that he possessed a critical piece of it. He had learned as much a long time ago, months and months, when he'd been the same man but different. He knew that if they wanted to complete their sword, they would need the shard tucked securely beneath the back of his belt, concealed beneath the drape of his long coat. It was enough. Enough to force the reckoning that had been coming for hundreds of years. Enough to force the Sunrise Knight to do what he had refused, yet so desired to do for so very long. The Eyes and the Voice were no more; Taliesin placed no more obstacles between them. All that kept the two combatants from joining battle was Mytura himself, and the time for such reticence was past. Isaac possessed the Sun Shard. Now, Mytura would have no choice but to come to him and let it be decided.

With the dawn sun rising at his back, Isaac strode out onto the winding mountain path.

Chamdar Taliesin - Death Mountain Path - Early Morning Three

The hidden flame grew brighter, burned hotter, until Chamdar rounded a bend in the path and found himself approached by the one he'd sensed approaching.

Isaac Telmar, Isaac Kinslayer, Harbinger of the Primordial Flame, stopped short before him. Chamdar stood taller than him, and yet somehow Kinslayer seemed to loom larger than ever he had. It was the presence of him that had changed, Chamdar realized, along with his appearance to a degree. Now Kinslayer's arms and chest were bare beneath the sleeveless, dusty gray long coat, and the infernal brand writhed in full view across flesh that had eschewed much of its humanity for a look of mottled scales. Dragon's scales. Eyes that had once been gray or crimson now burned like deep caverns of flame without iris or sclera--only a sliver of pupil. One corner of his mouth quirked as they stood before one another, and the inimical heat Chamdar had sensed from afar stoked to a raging inferno.

"What have you done, Kinslayer?"

The smirk grew broader.

"What you couldn't, Taliesin," he replied softly. "I've killed the holder of my leash at last, and now all that was his, all that was him, is mine."

And so it was. Chamdar could see it now, sense the truth of it. Somehow, Isaac's connection to Abatheras, the bond that had enforced Kinslayer's servitude, had been turned back on the Primordial Flame. Somehow, Isaac had taken the leash, and had used it to strangle his once-master to death. What he sensed in Kinslayer now was the full weight of the chaotic inferno, the full force of the blaze.

"How?"

"There are powers as old as the Flame, old man. Often, it seems, they do not react well to one another. I walked the paths of Dusk, which are anathema to Abatheras, in body and soul. Now I am the Flame, while he is nothing.

"Looks like you're headed down. There's a meeting underway. You go and tell them that I have one of the ingredients for their precious sword, and if they want it then Mytura can find me when the time comes and try and wrest it from me. I assure you there will be no secret of where I wait for him."

Isaac stepped back a few paces, watching Chamdar warily yet somehow knowing that the Scion would not strike at him. He was Abatheras now, and Chamdar had faced Abatheras long ago. Instead he stood and watch as with a slight crouch, Isaac thrust himself up into the air tailing a jet of dark fire in his wake, streaking east.

A short time later he strode into Hidden Kakariko, into the crush of humanity that now flooded its streets. All of they who were known as the Lights were meeting in the command pavilion, but Chamdar kept his distance. The words on his tongue were meant for the ears of precious few, and so he found a place high atop a building beside a steaming spring and settled down on a bench to wait.

Summary: Chamdar gets spit out onto the Death Mountain path and starts to make his way down. Isaac, after getting what he needed, slips out of the meeting and heads out of town, only to come face to face with Chamdar. A brief conversation ensues, and then Isaac takes to the skies. Chamdar reached Hidden Kakariko but does not go to the command tent. Instead he settles in to wait until the meeting is over.

Sirius was alone at last, except for Bernard, but Bernard was always there, no matter where he went. He had grown to prefer the company, after all he owed the Zora a great deal for interfering with his chance at any kind of afterlife.

(“Sirius, since the lab has come back online, I’ve been running analysis of local events. I believe you may be interested to know that one of the visions of the future we saw, seems to be ready to pass. This one is unstable, so the outcome seems to be undetermined. I would officially mark this point in time as unfixed.”)

“The Twili war is over, but the final battle still comes.” Sirius replied. He sat back in a wooden rocking chair, easing it back and forth slowly with his hands behind his head. “I’ve seen many versions of this war in the vision chambers. Speaking of that - did we ever find an easy way back to the hall of memories? Or whatever it is I called it last.” Sirius referred to a location outside time, a cavernous place that granted those visiting it the ability to see the past, present, and possible futures. Few had seen it, and even fewer had survived the madness induced by a visit to such a place.

(“No, it has not been detected. What do you wish to do about the Twili? My records show that they are not supposed to -”)

Sirius laughed. “You have no records of the future, Bernard, only ideas that I’ve given you.” Bernard interrupted.

(“As you say, but in any case, what do you wish to do? You have him in custody, ready to serve you in the fight against Ratnis. Will he be willing to assist in this fight if it means your assistance in the future?”)

“It doesn’t feel right having my lab’s automation system asking me questions, Bernard. But yes, I’m going to speak with him now.” Sirius jumped to his feet, dragged the chair forward a few paces, and sat back down, putting his feet up on a raised pedestal. He began addressing the pedestal and the object inside it, more directly. “We were brothers once, created to let darkness into the world. I was ripped away and given some kind of semblance of a soul, however fake. You built one on your own, through endless battle and death. I suppose my own death also gave me some perspective. And now here we are, though I must apologize for keeping you here. I couldn’t trust you enough until I’d thought it over. But I think you understand.”

Sirius was nervous. He had to stay in the lab, but it wouldn’t be right to leave the few defenders of Hyrule all alone. And yet he doubted they would openly accept the one gift he had. It would have to arrive in the heat of the moment, and let actions speak louder than words. He thought back over the past few days. His own revival, the destruction of Ratnis’ plans to return to Hyrule, the conversion of Davus to his side, and his own choice to give up on recovering the chest from his lab. He’d still need to find out later what that was. For now though, more important matters existed.

“Bernard, I’m going to need you to wake up our other friend while I do this. And please initiate the graveyard recovery program.”

(“Yes, Sirius.”)

Summary: Sirius has seen visions of the upcoming battle, but cannot see the outcome. Knowing the fate of Hyrule affects him as much as anyone, he is preparing to get involved in the final fight.

Taden turned his eyes from the bleak horizon to look over his shoulder, where a squat stone sat buried beneath a pile of vines. He could just barely make out the glimmer of a Weeping Eye engraved onto the rock long ago, and he felt the echo of its whispering language in his mind as if it had been planted there as far back. In the time his Hated Cloak had been imbued in Lynn’s mind, it had picked it up no small amount of her memories.

He knelt down by the Gossip Stone and spread his palm over its ocular surface. It seemed to cackle at him despite its large, swollen tears. Again, he heard the whisper of its embedded secrets, as only the trained Sheikah knew how.

“…a secret road…”

Planting his feet into the ground, he squared off toward the ramshackle bridge that connected his perch on a small island to the main shore. The chain of earthen isles separating him from the mainland had been overrun by undead. When they reached the final bridge that would bring them to him, he slouched back on one knee and readied his hands over the hilt of Aurgelmir.

“Thou undeath, whose undoing will be at the hands of a ghost,” he muttered under his breath.

The first zombi lunged toward him in a rage, followed by a second, and their heads went flying when he unsheathed his blade. Their scalps fell to the churning ice below, and three more charged headlong over their remains. Taden jumped into the air, and swept past each like a bolt of lightning through the night air, slashing his curved sword through neck, and chest, and skull. The two halves of the last ghoul split to either side, giving way to a criss crossing trail of Blue Fire in Horwendil’s wake. At the next landing along the decrepit rope bridges, he paused and took a knee. A wave of mist billowed over him, drawn up by his swift, sudden burst.

The next batch of undead had pilfered weapons from the corpses of Hylian and Twili alike on the shores of the Lake. A tattered, one-eyed old man, the lower half of his face chewed off up to the beard, snarled at him and bucked a bloody pitchfork. Taden dashed forward and somersaulted over him, and landed before another wielding a long pike. He dropped low and swept his leg under the ghoul’s foot, then propped his sword upside down with the hilt at his ear, twisting it to fling the beast’s pike spiraling into the air—until impaling the last of their number. With his sword held out to his left side at a low angle, he raised his shoulders and spread his arms wide, then sunk low and spun past the remaining column of foes. Their chests gushed open in unison, and sprays of black bile sprang into the air, until gore hung like a heavy, hellish fog in the early morning chill.

A veil of cloud gathered over the shore as Taden took the beachhead, and a light snow began to fall. It gathered along the crevices of a shattered ruin on the Lake’s north coast, where granite columns jutted from the sands. His footsteps clattered along a wide marble platform, until he came to the water’s edge. He pressed his hands together at his chest, breathed in slowly, and then fanned his arms wide, sending a rush of wind down onto the jagged waves of ice. They ripped apart at his command, and the floating shards of the frozen surface orbited into a large revolving ring. Despite the dropping temperature, he fastened his robes tight and pulled the wraps masking his mouth taut, then dove head first into the icy waters revealed beneath the ice.

The boulders of ice gradually lost their symmetry and collided again, once nothing could be seen of Taden beneath the water’s surface except his wavering shadow.

OOC: Taden approaches a Gossip Stone for a clue as to his next direction, using some intuition he gained from Lynn (more vague feelings than photographic recall). He fights his way through a few lines of zombi before making his way into an ornate Zora cave.

After falling into a slumber in the depths of Lake Hylia, Jeskai’s body had sunken into the dirt, beneath the lake bed. The forces within him pushed away the mud as he slept, keeping him safe in his cocoon of air, preventing suffocation. It was just another place Sirius had planted his technology, given himself a failsafe.

Jeskai’s mind was clear, the forces of Bernard and the lab having scrubbed his memories clean. His personality was reset, but echoes lingered. The mind wipe, it was not complete. Time stopped moving forward, began to wrench backward as well. Jeskai was still at the bottom of the lake, beneath the lake, but his eyes saw through a past echo of himself. He knew this to be a memory, but it felt as vivid as the present.

He stood upon the shore with his brothers and sisters, among them Bernard. He remembered this moment, for the first time, since it happened. He looked again, they were all dead, and he laid upon the ground with Bernard, dying. It was the moment after they had chained up the undead dragon, the final moments of his life as it was before.

“Jeskai.” Bernard’s voice sounded strange, fake. “You will not remember this moment until the time is right. Sirius, he has failsafes in everything. He’s paranoid, afraid of the future, but ready to face it head on, ready to subvert fate and assist it, all at once. This body I have, it is not real.” Bernard coughed up blood. “Well, it is as real as it can be, but it has been manufactured, as one might manufacture tools of war. My true body died centuries ago, this is merely Sirius attempting to make up for what has happened to me. He cannot accept that I forgive him many years ago. But yours - I’m sorry, Bernard, this is not how I wanted things to go. Your clan was the first successful group of hatchlings, the first that didn’t die prematurely, or go insane, or...you were the first, and now it’s wasted on some task that will surely be undone within months.”

Jeskai felt a hand on his shoulder, pulling him from the memory, pulling him back to reality.

Jeskai opened his eyes, for real this time. He was not in a cave anymore. Time had passed, hours perhaps, it didn’t matter. He was above ground now. He looked upon - another Zora?

“Who are you?” Jeskai asked, but he knew the answer as the question finished leaving his lips. “Efran?”

“Hello brother.” Efran was jet black, clearly altered from what he had been in life. But this did not appear to be the result of Sirius. Something else had happened while Efran was away. “I think we should talk. I’ve been away, angry at Sirius, but I realize now that I’ve been looking at things all wrong. I thought we were created as his playthings, toys in ever-expanding experiments. Revived merely to be test subjects. But it’s deeper, don’t you see?” Efran’s eyes were a bright white against the black of body, unsettling and strangely enchanting.

“I don’t understand.” Jeskai said, his memory foggy still. Nothing made sense. Why would Bernard have only partially memory wiped him? Why would Sirius not be up front about things? Efran seemed to sense Jeskai’s questions. He answered them before they could be asked aloud.

“There is no good answer besides: they were afraid of losing control of us and wanted to wait longer before restoring our memories to full. I escaped because I knew I was already in control. And in the past few days I found him. He died, but he lives on. He powers us all now. He wants us to help fight in the final battle. He wants us to find her.”

“Who?”

Summary: Jeskai wakes up in a land of confusion, and has a brief flashback to when he died alongside his Zoran brothers and sisters. He is at first in a cave beneath lake hylia, but in his flashback haze is transported outside the cave to an unknown location by his brother, Efran. Together the two are now planning to seek out her.

Sha'tive's face hit the table hard as she was thrown onto it with a forceful thud. She grumbled while uselessly struggling against her bonds as Horus sat on a nearby chair, turning to the rest of his comrades.

"So...not to interrupt what's been talked about, but we had a spy here and none of you people knew." Horus' calm voice betrayed his glare and angry body language as he forcefully gestured at Sha'tive who looked over at them through messy crimson bangs.

"If this is how easy we are to infiltrate, we're already fucked."

Sha'tive chuckled at Horus' statement, which he ignored.

"Anyway, what have I missed? I have a theory about the source of Grem's power if anyone is interested." He finished, resting his arms on Morning's Edge's hilt.

Bernard had attempted to follow Sirius’ command to wake up Jeskai, but found the Zora had already been woken up, and was no longer on his telepathic grid. Since Sirius was busy chatting with another, he chose to hold off on reporting the information right away.

Sirius, meanwhile, now held Davus’ staff, having been speaking to it for some time. Davus was inside, and very much cognizant of what was happening. Though Sirius had initially locked him inside, he’d already released the lock, and Davus was simply staying put until the conversation was complete.

“So then you agree to this plan?” Sirius asked. He’d been speaking with Davus for the better part of an hour, going over their mutual desire for the destruction of their creator, Ratnis. Sirius had access to far more resources and information than Davus, though Davus had the advantage of having been in more direct contact with the Ma for some time. Each had something to gain from cooperation, but Sirius had other obligations. It had taken some convincing, but Davus was now on board with those obligations as well. After staying in staff form for so long, he finally took humanoid form again.

“I agree with the general plan of assisting them, but I think you are foolish to send me in blind. We need to at least attempt to make things clear before the fighting starts. Once they are in the mindset of battle, there won’t be a way to explain things.”

Sirius was impressed. Davus was right. He nodded to affirm the thunder mage’s intentions. Then he placed a black mage’s robe in Davus’ hands, one adorned with subtle yellow patterns on along the bottom edges of the outfit. A similarly patterned cloak was attached, though the patterns of the cloak were ever-changing, a pattern of static that would continually shift.

“This robe is more than just looks. It will bond with you and take non-corporeal or corporeal form as you do. It will enhance and focus your powers, and it will not contain you and bend you to my will, if that was your next question.”

“I don’t believe that I will have much chance of stopping that anyway.” Davus replied flatly, making it clear that his trust for Sirius did not change his expectation of subversion from the man.

“Good. Now, I have nothing else to offer you but the sense of urgency this situation calls for. You can locate ‘Hidden’ Kakariko, I’m sure.” Sirius made air quotes as he spoke, outlining his thoughts on just how hidden he thought the rebels base to be. “Mentioning my name probably won’t help too much, so only do so if asked, otherwise I trust that you can handle yourself.”

“I can.” Davus said, before exploding into a cloud of sparks, blinking out of existence as he traveled towards the last stronghold of the rebels.

“Bernard.” Sirius said. “Please tell me you have good news about Jeskai.”

(“Sorry Sirius, but he’s somehow been removed from the grid. Status unknown.”)

Sirius grimaced. There was always a new problem. Then he smiled. There was always a new problem to solve.

Summary: Sirius dispatches Davus to go meet with the last of the rebels in “Hidden” Kakariko and offer his help. Davus hasn’t arrived yet but is on his way.

Everyone at the meeting was busy singing about their impending defeat. He’d expected as much from Darrel considering what that poor bastard had put up with in his life but the younger ones were usually more optimistic. The scion seemed to be the only one capable of thinking rationally enough to come up with a plan of action. Seishi was actually a bit surprised by that though, Chamder hadn’t exactly given him a high opinion of the title. While everyone else seemed to think of the old man in some high regard or another, he could only see him as an unreliable wizard that was suppose to deal with Taden but just seemed make him stronger.

It wasn’t until he took a moment to look over at Phoenix that Seishi started to consider things could really be as bad as the others thought. Phoenix had barely batted and eye at anything that had happened so far in this war. Even just yesterday at the staff meeting where the generals discussed the losses at Lake Hylia and the successes in Ordon, Phoenix just sat there calmly in a way Seishi knew meant everything was going according to his plan. This shit about Grem though; it was clearly he hadn’t expected that.

Phoenix leaned over to whisper to Seishi, “It looks like hoping they were just drones is an option.”

“Great, now I get to dump more bad news on them,” Seishi replied with a tone of sarcasm and deep annoyance.

The fish spoke next, and his contribution left Seishi unsure if he should laugh or punch the general in the face hard enough to knock the barnacles off his ocean stenched ass. The audacity of that man, of all people, to tell them to take the pacifist route. To only take prisoners or flee without harming a hair on their pretty little interloper heads. Did he forget who he was; did he forget the kind of butchery he’d orchestrated? Or maybe he didn’t forget, maybe he just didn’t care? After all it was Hylian Soldiers that would have to suffer the brunt of the consequences that fighting with kids gloves on would cause.

Seishi was a half a second form finally losing it and trying to rip Polaris’ head off but the sudden appearance of Jaden’s apparently not dead girl friend gave Phoenix the moment he needed to stop Seishi from acting to rashly, and made it clear he wanted him to get on with his brief so that could get out of there an back to business.

“Ok, I hate to do this, but I’ve got more bad news,” Seishi said with a heavy sigh. “We just found our favorite resident loon Sirius was keeping a handful Ma in a cage, and now they’re probably running free. For those who are new around here, this means we’re dealing around a half dozen people possessed by evil spirits that enhance their powers and leave them wanting nothing more than to watch the world burn. It’d hoped they would turn out to all be mindless ones that would burn themselves out killing our enemies, but with wonderfully cheery news Darrel brought us today we know that’s not exactly to our advantage. This means we’ll need try and find and kill them.”

“For those that don’t know. You’re looking for people with silver hair, blank white eyes, and a barely noticeable blue steam coming off their bodies. Also, at their weakest, they’re as strong as me or Phoenix with our game faces on. So on unless you think take us down, don’t fight them alone,” he said activating his briefly demonic powers to punctuate his point. “Finally, it’s unlikely but if you find one that’s intelligent enough to talk, run. Those are among the most dangerous beings that have walked the face of Hyrule. The only ones here that have a guaranteed chance of survive a fight against them are Seraph-girl over here and Senshi.”

Seishi stood suddenly noticing his son was absent. A fact that he found quiet troublesome since as the host of Death Angel he was the best weapon they had against this things at the moment. He turned to Ayala for answers since she always seemed to be able to find him, “Where the hell is your brother?”

Summary:
Seishi managed not to try and break Polaris’ jaw. Yay, anger management! He briefs everyone about the Ma situation.

“Damn it Tsukiakari, why didn’t you tell me about Cena?” Senshi asked to himself as he waited just outsite the village. It was just one of many thoughts that he found racing through his mind since yesterday. Cena, Sirius, Ithan, Ella, the Zora girl, Polaris’ return, Taur’s new master, all things he had to worry about know but didn’t have time to. He had a more pressing tasking to deal with at the moment.

Misha finally arrived carrying some cold weather cloths and a fair amount of supplies, “Do we really need this much?”

Senshi reached down to pick up the bulk share of the gear, “The Snowpeak Range isn’t exactly easy to navigate, and that’s when you know what you’re looking for. We’re looking for a long forgotten and presumable well hidden temple, it could take some time. Plus we have Dagnir to worry about. We can’t afford to fight him until we find what we’re looking for so we could get caught up hiding and evading for some time.”

“Anyway, let’s get going we’ve got a long way ahead of us,” he said as he started up the trail. “On the way you can tell me about Zora girl’s interrogation.”

”They say that when non-fairy folk enter the Lost Woods, they become monsters.”

Taden pressed his hand against the carved eye of the Gossip Stone, over the pupil, pushing himself up from one knee to his feet. He straightened his belt and blades, looked up at the canopy. The sky was rainy and overcast; the low clouds that gathered over his head on the lake had followed him to Faron Province, blocking out the sun. Behind him, a quiet stream trickled out from the cavern he had emerged from, trickling out over the grey morning into a wide, shallow pond. He felt a strange, sacred presence lingering under the rippling pool, like the Spirit of Lanayru that Taden felt embedded in Lynn—but different, more secluded and wary. Whoever watched over these woods, they did not make interlopers like himself feel welcome.

A quick rush of wind suddenly shot from the trees to his side, and before he could blink a tiny dart with a red tuft at its tip pierced his neck. He swatted the dart from his neck and turned on his heel to face where it came from—a line of trees with shadows moving rapidly in the dawn halflight. A carpet of crickets and other creatures hummed and chirped in the clearing, but when Taden knelt down and touched two fingers to the soil, a chill went out radially from his stance and coated the forest floor with frost. The crickets fell silent. The pond disappeared under a thick sheet of ice. And in the near distance, with the grass frozen over, he heard faint footsteps crackling as they fled. Before he could rise and give chase, though, a heavier set of footsteps lumbered at his back, and he turned around to find two heavily armored Stalfos Knights mounted on great, dead boars looming over him.

“It did not take long from this hallowed realm to fall to the undead hoard,” he mused, ever displeased with his Hyrulean confines. As a team, the two Stalfos charged across the clearing, lowering their long, ribboned pikes and kicking their boars into bellowing warcries. Still kneeling from when he cast his spell on the ground, he pressed his hands into the frosted earth and lunged upward, expecting to fly into the air, only to find himself grounded. He cursed under his breath as he realized the poison dart had somehow disabled his magic. One knight closed in and swung his pike, and Taden barely rolled out of the way before his head was taken off. He had just enough time to whip out his dagger and slash at the flank of the second pig just he rode past, making him stumble and throw his rider into the ice of the shimmering pool.

“Hrroooar!” The fallen pig roared as it crashed into the ground, then vanished into a plume of smoke that lingered around his rider. The knight jumped up and spun the long handle of his pike overhead, charging in again on foot while his partner about-faced from his joust. Taden unsheathed Aurgelmir and met his foe head on, slashing up with his sword just as the warrior slammed down his pike. They met in the water, and with their blades locked tight, Taden looked deep into the dead, empty eyes of the Stalfos until he found the red, beady pupils of life that burned inside his skull. If the Sheikah secrets were right, this was a Hylian once, and judging by its armor, a highborn lord.

“Chyaa!” Taden jerked his sword out from underneath the Stalfos’ pike and let the beast’s forward momentum smash him into the pond, then spun on one foot to bring his blade down on the neck of his exposed spine. The demon’s helmeted head snapped from his shoulders and clanged across the rocks, until rolled up against the heavy cloven hooves of his compatriot’s boar. Unthinking, the mount sniffed the head for a moment before taking a large bite, devouring it helmet and all like so much cud, as the second ghoul stared Taden down. He fanned his blade low out before him and returned the mongrel’s gaze. If the thing could feel fear, Taden wondered if it realized it was in over its head.

”Brrhuuu!” The Stalfos kicked his beast’s sides and charged a second time, lowering his pike and staring daggers at his opponent. Taden readied his blades, the Maskmaker’s Knife in his right and Aurgelmir in his left. He ran forward to meet his attacker, and just as the two drew near, he leapt into the air and flung his dagger right between the boar’s eyes. It stumbled with an earthy moan and his rider’s pike swayed, allowing Taden to bounce one foot off its lowered handle, gaining a second lunge to spin around and slice his sword through the Stalfos’ neck as he turned. When he landed, the two had fallen into a heap, and the first boar already began slouching over to sniff the corpse and marrow, even as the ichor leaked from his own flank.

Taden wiped gore from under his eye and dragged his blade across the wet grass to clean it. He walked over the dead pig to retrieve his knife from its skull, and the one still alive slinked away slowly as he approached. He yanked it out and wiped it on his coattails. As he left the clearing, he saw a ring of flowers scattered across the narrow path to the south, and recognized their reddish, heart-shaped petals. He scooped up three of the plants and crushed them in his palm, then clapped them down his throat. Within minutes, he felt the poison’s effects subsiding, and resolved to keep a sharper eye on the shadows in these treacherous woods.

OOC: Taden returns to Faron Woods, encountering a pair of Stalfos as he makes his way south.

Bilthon Blartle rubbed his eyes, hoping to relieve the stinging pain of sleeplessness but only making them water worse. The sneaksters, goddess bless them for the fortifications, were on the move again, it seemed. Two of them were headed out down Snowpeak way, he'd just overheard them as they left. The war hadn't really touched out there, but if Hyrule forces were dislodged from as defensible a place as this, well... Bil really didn't think they'd ever make it to Snwpeak, to say the least.

He turned to the sentry on duty with him, about to express this in not so few words. His compatriot, however, spoke first, becoming more tense.

"Horse a'coming."

Bilthon tightened his grip on his halberd as the horse galloped full tilt up from the field below. He only relaxed minutely upon seeing the rider was a Hylian. The waif of a young boy clung desperately to the saddle. He looked wrung out, and his mount was lathered in a sheen of sweat. The beast's whole body seemed to heave with the effort of each breath before it collapsed, throwing the rider to a tumble. Bilthon ran forward to see if the poor child had been killed by the fall.

He hadn't, but it was a bare thing. Bilt knelt beside him, and the broken kid stammered a few words before succumbing to pain.

His last word was carried from his throat by a sighing breath, and he went limp.

Bil turned to the other sentry. "Get him to the docs. I've got to make a report."

Bad luck, this whole war was. Why did he have to be on shift, at that moment, at that post? Oh well, so much for it...

Phoenix/War Tent/Morning 3

One of the sentries has just been sent up to the War Tent. A messenger slipped through the crowd of Light Warriors to inform Phoenix, and Phoenix told him to let the man come give his report to this little Light Warrior Council. He'd been expecting this. Now it was time to give this group the final kick in the ass they needed, after the beat-down at the Lake.

"A runner just came up at the outer sentry-line. Rode his horse to death, almost died himself when the thing collapsed. The Interlopers are on the move. They're coming right this way, following our retreat from the Lake. We have until nightfall, at the earliest."

Phoenix surveyed the Light Warriors for reactions. Some faces tightened with resolve, others became more grim. But everyone knew.

"As for you batch of Light Warriors, it's clear our time for discussion and deliberation has ended. That sword needs done, which means the Gorons need the components. And we need to stay alive here long enough for someone to end the threat of Grem. So, much as it pains me to say this... you'll have to split into groups, and get moving. Six months was too long." He eyed a specific few of his audience. "Now we don't have time to waste. Get going."

Summary: One of the sentries finds an outrunner scout, who brings news. The Twili are on their way to Hidden Kakariko, and will arrive by nightfall at the earliest. The report is made to the War Council of the Light Warriors. Time is running out for Hyrule. Make the sword. Defend Hidden Kakariko. Just don't stand around.

Taden unrolled the scrap of parchment in his sleeve, pilfered from the pockets of one of the fallen Stalfos.

Captain Phal,

Your mission is to intercept a troop of advance scouts in the Twili army before they return to occupied territory. We believe the party you seek to have knowledge of our redoubt’s secret location. They must therefore be eliminated to a man. Sheikah intelligence has identified the patrol routes surrounding the base in the map enclosed. You would do well to memorize its marking, and destroy the parchment before crossing enemy lines.

—Commander Phoenix

He studied the crudely drawn map for a moment, tracing his pale blue fingers over the red ink that trailed from a thin wooden bridge deep into the southern swamps. A patchwork of interwoven lines covered each path, showing where Twili guards and barracks were posted. At the bottom of the map was a rectangle marked with one word: Grem.

Taden pulled the collar of his great coat up around his ears, slunk down into the trees on the near side of Faron Bridge. Instantly, he felt a thick wave of pressure, like gravity or vertigo, pull him down. A heavy force emanated from deep within the territory, and the very air around him pulsed with its dark tension. He squinted his eyes in the dim and steeled himself to the feeling that no amount of sleuthing would keep him from being detected here for long.

On the bridge ahead, he saw his first three Twili guards standing shoulder to shoulder. They made their way across the wide bridge in a rotation, always one at either end while the third made the trek across. From his perch in the trees above them, he let his fingers drift on the breeze, and on the far side of the bridge a swarm of Ice Keese appeared to pester one of the guards. The other two rushed to his aid, swatting at the vermin with their swords, as Taden slipped through the branches and leapt down under the bridge, catching himself on the ropes underneath.

By the time the guards returned to their posts, he was brachiating hand over hand across the underside of the bridge. When it was time to climb up on the other side, he hung by one hand and used the other to direct the Ice Keese towards the bridge, sending all three guards running to the opposite end. He swung up and dashed into the woods on the southern side, then crouched low into the enveloping trees.

Using the map from the Stalfos, he made his way south around the Twili guards’ barracks, waiting out guards and sticking to the early morning shadows. His everpresent ice storm had merged with the umbral atmosphere to resemble cold dust slowly sinking to the ground, coating the rough hewn gates and leather canvas of the Twili outpost in what looked like ash. A truly dark sorcery permeated this land, its ambient effects contaminating whatever energies came into its fold. As he passed by Twili soldiers at their tents, leaning on barrels or squatting on stools, he overheard their idle chatter.

“That demigod Kae nearly took my head off, but her damned magicks only grazed my shoulder,” a grunt grunted. “Those Bryseis twins are a piece of work. Best lay low when they bring their flashy mages out; it’s a sure sign they’re about to retreat.”

“Eh, maybe you’d have dodged her altogether if you hadn’t turned tail and ran! Eyes front, soldier!” a superior chided, slapping the grunt on the shoulder and making him wheeze.

Finally, he reached the high timber walls of the Interloper’s fortress, just before the first full rays of the sun pierced the horizon. The gravity of the forces within was growing stronger, radiating now as he inched closer. He could feel its shape and mood just as he sensed the Light Spirit in the sacred fount before, only this presence was more cruel, and craven He knew the Hylian army and its mercenaries pursued this evil, but he knew little of its designs.

He knew only that his Final Relic lay under the Hylians' self-righteous control, and in order to bait them to the surface, he would need the lure of his enemy’s enemy.

He worked his way through the epicenter of the Twili encampment, sidling past its high walls along the wheels of a wagon that rolled slowly in. He timed his steps with the patterns of the Twili guard outlined on his map, until he came to a large hut raised behind an inner gate of the base. The bleak, sable banners of Lord Grem’s army hung from either side, and Taden realized he’d reached his destination. Inside, he heard the low, gruff voices of battle-weary commanders arguing over their next moves.

“Once their souls become our own, our people will walk in the Light once more.”

“But, sire, there is yet one contingency. If they were to reach Death Mountain with the proper artifacts…”

A heavier baritone suddenly silenced the group with an announcement.

“This war is at an end, Lieutenant. The fate of Hylia is decided, whatever their false hopes may be. You are dismissed.”

Not without some consternation at the sudden grouse, the commanders made their way outside one by one, until Grem was left alone.

In one last quick movement, Taden darted through the canvas door at the departing officers’ backs, and righted himself before the towering warlord. He stood nearly twice the height of the ice mage, but the General took a seat on a black wicker throne, and they were at eye level. With one hand on his hilt, Taden addressed Lord Grem in a hushed tone.

“Let my arrival here vouch for my stealth, and my resolve. Call me a treasure hunter. Ye makes to destroy the last of the King of Hyrule’s forces? I make to join thee, and plunder the King's arms.”

With a slight smirk under his silver locks, Taden knelt to the ground at the General's feet. He unlatched his knife and let it fall to his side, then lifted up his longsword in its ebony sheath to display it to the warmonger in both hands, head bowed. He could feel the General’s eyes slithering over his proffered blade, could hear the hiss of his mind probing into his own. Grem had known he was coming, Taden sensed it, but he had dismissed his high command rather than reveal him to them. After a moment, he looked up from the ground, and countered the General’s hellish glare with his own cold gaze.

"Only point me in the direction of thy army, and I shall hasten this war's end."

OOC: Taden infiltrates the Twili encampment and makes his way to Lord Grem, where he offers to help finish the Interloper War.

Elly wasnt dead. The how and why of it would need to come later given the latest developments.

For centuries, the location of the Sheikah hometown was only known to the Royal Family, the Hero of Time on certain occasions, and the Shadow Folk proper. Necessity forced the Hylian military here. It forced a Ma here. A Celestial. Primordial. Everyone suddenly knew. Including those damned Twili.

Now this was the last stand. If he was going to die, he would prefer to die honorably drawing swords alongside all of the friends and colleagues he had made over this conflict. His inspiration, the Red Ice General. His friend and mentor, The Sunrise Knight. The Scion, his sister. His betrothed. So many others.

He figured at this point, fighting not to kill was not the best option. With the village soon to be overrun, he hoped to take out as many as he could to buy the sword crafters enough time. Perhaps even stay alive to marry Elly. His parents were nowhere to be found on the grounds. Out on assignment in Zora's Domain still as ambassadors and consultants to the King. He wished they were here.

"Look, we need to figure out where the rest of these pieces are and get it done. Don't leave anything out of the finished product. Getting those forges back took a lot of work. Lia, we will need a lot of help from you especially. Who the hell knows what elements are left besides that damned Sun Shard?"

Summary: Jaden tries to further the importance of getting the sword complete. What's left to gather?

Darrel had said his piece, and then he stood back and allowed the rest to speak as was their right. Hyrulean military command structure might be rigid, but the structure of the Lights and their newly formed Daybreak Alliance was anything but. They did not give orders, they engaged in discussion. Perhaps not always the best course, but in their case it was vital, for it appeared that the bad news was beginning to pile up.

Demons in their midst. Twili on the march. A sword to construct and its ingredients as yet incomplete. An as yet unbeatable adversary at the head of the serpent. It was almost too much.

"The Scion speaks the truth. The Daybreak Sword, the namesake of our alliance, has always been our long-term goal. If she believes in the visions she's received, then I will defer to her on this matter. We must complete the weapon."

A moment later, the Oni commander interjected, drawing all eyes.

"A runner just came up at the outer sentry-line. Rode his horse to death, almost died himself when the thing collapsed. The Interlopers are on the move. They're coming right this way, following our retreat from the Lake. We have until nightfall, at the earliest."

Phoenix surveyed the Light Warriors for reactions. Some faces tightened with resolve, others became more grim. But everyone knew.

"As for you batch of Light Warriors, it's clear our time for discussion and deliberation has ended. That sword needs done, which means the Gorons need the components. And we need to stay alive here long enough for someone to end the threat of Grem. So, much as it pains me to say this... you'll have to split into groups, and get moving. Six months was too long." He eyed a specific few of his audience. "Now we don't have time to waste. Get going."

"Indeed. We have precious few elements left needed to craft the blade. One final blessing of the Light Spirits, located deep within hostile territory, a unique desert mineral, and unless I'm mistaken, the final element is the Sun Shard." Darrel turned his eyes toward Telmar... only to find him absent. He blinked in surprise, not having seen the pyromancer slip out. Isaac had been the last man to possess the shard, to his knowledge. Now he was missing. To mask the glance, he cast his gaze across the rest of the assembly for confirmation of his assessment. He'd been in the field for some time, and the reports he'd received from High Command had been sparse in that time. However, he'd remembered the few scraps of information pertaining to the Daybreak Sword.

Another newcomer entered the tent. A courier, not unlike the one who'd brought news of the impending assault to Phoenix. Only this one came not to the Oni, but to Darrel's side at the table.

"Apologies, General, but I have a message from the one as calls himself Kinslayer. Says he's got something you need, a sun fragment or some such. Told me to tell you that if you want it, you can come and take it from him when the time comes. Said you'd know when that was."

The Sunrise Knight sagged somewhat on his cane, but only somewhat. He'd hoped, hoped, that Isaac's sense of self-preservation and peculiar proclivity toward a challenge might drop the Sun Shard in their hands. It was clear, however, that this was not going to be the case. Isaac had them by the short ones, it appeared, and he was going to use the Sun Shard as leverage to get what he'd wanted for a very long time.

Too bad, then, that Darrel had other concerns now.

"Thank you, private. You're dismissed." He looked to the rest, breathing a heavy sigh. "It appears we know where each of the three remaining elements are now."

"Three? We know of two at least, the shard and the blessing, but I've not heard any intelligence regarding the mineral." The Red Ice General's expression was fierce, but there was a wildness behind his eyes that Darrel didn't need his spiritual senses to notice.

"Nor would you have, friend." Darrel replied before jerking his head toward Jaden. "Captain Bryseis' team came by the possible location of the dawn mineral known as Spiritium in your absence. After one of our joint raids ended in the capture of an enemy mage, their interrogation yielded the Twili discovery of a unique mineral located deep within a series of subterranean catacombs--the ruin of some sort of ancient structure--unearthed years ago by the Gerudo through an old mine shaft.

"At the time we had no way to reach the mine to confirm that it was, in fact, the Spiritium that we need. It was located in a ridge in the midst of the enemy encampment--we would have had to slip past thousands of Twili soldiers, mages, and golems. But now it would appear that the whole of the Twili invasion force has pulled up stakes in the hopes of crushing us outright. If we can get a small team past enemy territory and into the desert, we should be able to acquire the mineral and return with it to forge the sword, so long as it is the genuine article." He looked to Lia Chiaria. "I believe you can aid with the transport part."

He turned his eyes back to the rest.

"Kinslayer's words were not an idle boast. He has something in mind; he will not place the Sun Shard at risk until he has what he wants, and we have too many other concerns right now to press the issue. We must turn our focus to the other elements for now, and deal with him later. I propose a strike team consisting of myself, Jaden, Polaris, and Horus, along with Miss Chiaria, go to the desert to acquire the mineral. Jaden's men acquired the information, so he will know the location best. My powers are heightened in the desert, so I will go as well. Miss Chiaria can transport us there, but then she should return to provide transport to the second team as well. Horus and Polaris each have alternate means of returning us here with speed so that we can deliver the mineral.

"The second team will have to go after the blessing, deep within enemy territory to the south in Ordon. Do we have any volunteers for this task? If Seishi is to be believed, then Senshi and you, Kae, are the only ones here we can count on to be immune to the threat of these demons loosed by Sirius. Under those circumstances it makes the most sense that they should stay to root them out while the ingredients are acquired. However, I would hear everyone's thoughts on the matter."

Finally, he turned fully to face Horus, who had entered with a spy in tow, and now leaned upon the hilt of Morning's Edge with its point driven into the earth.

"Horus, I'm glad to see you well. I understand that I have you to thank for the fact that I'm standing here right now. You caught this spy, so I will defer to you in this matter. What do you propose we do with her?" He hobbled a step forward and held out his free hand. "I want you with us when we enter the desert, if that is your choice, but first another matter. I must have my blade back, in order to heal fully. I am injured now, but alive by the grace of your heroics and her discerning view of the heart that beats in your chest. Yours is as worthy a hand as I could have hoped to wield Morning's Edge in my absence, but I must ask for her back now. She is a part of me, and long has been."

Summary: Darrel takes in all of the information shared, and after Isaac's message is delivered by Chamdar's proxy, he narrows the remaining ingredients to three and shares that he and Jaden have a theory on where the dawn mineral might be located within the desert, and that they can finally get to it now that the Twili army has broken camp and is on the march. He suggests that if Kae and Senshi are the only ones immune to the Ma threat, then they should be the ones to stay and deal with it. He also asks for volunteers to retrieve the last blessing in Ordon. Finally, he asks Horus for his damn sword back.

Lia silently complied with the request, and immediately began channeling the power needed for the mass teleport, which would have to include herself to ensure the correct destination was reached. Although she believed it might be possible to send others to another location without joining them, it wasn’t the right time to be testing it.

As she channeled power, Lia felt a presence just over her shoulder, but resisted the urge to turn and look behind her. She knew her eyes would reveal nothing. She did her best to ignore it, and continued to listen to Darrel. She almost objected to hearing him refer to the demons being loosed by Sirius, since it was not an intentional act, but somehow she felt Sirius deserved the blame anyway, and said nothing about it, instead cutting in to explain how her communications abilities.

“The range of my telepathy is extensive, but it will be somewhat limited while my power is directed to transporting multiples across such a distance. I won’t have contact with you after I leave you at the desert. I’ll have to return after I assist the others, to find out the status of your mission.”

Summary: Lia will be ready to teleport anytime. Once she drops the kids off at soccer practice though, she won’t have long range contact until she’s back in the region.

Polaris nodded in agreement with the Sunrise Knight. ”Of course I’ll go.” With Darrels empty hand outstretched, Polaris turned to Horus, ”I too find myself indebted to you Horus and would be glad to fight alongside you. Your assistance will also be much appreciated Lia.”

Dipping his chin first towards the psychic and then the avian in turn, Polaris turned to address the room at large, taking in the scrutinizing glares coming from all directions. ”Two days ago I was wandering, lost in the folds of the Dusk Warp, wholly consumed with the hunt for a man I met in the past 6 months, over a thousand years in the past. My vision was tainted by the Warp, as, it seems, my choices are still. Had I recognized sooner that Solday Du Ciel was NOT, the reason I was trapped in that forsaken place, then perhaps I would have found my way here sooner.”

Sighing, the General furrowed his brow, rubbing at his forehead as he strode freely around the tent, stopping a few feet from Seishi he spoke again. ”That, apparently wasn’t meant to be. I cannot replace the time lost here any more than I can erase the thousand years I spent lost and waiting to get back here. You all have waited a long time to win this war, know that I’ve waited longer and in so doing I find myself eager to begin repaying the debts left unpaid here in this time.”

Snapping his fingers, Polaris grinned. He’d completely forgotten. ”One who served under me during my time as King Tiburons general in the distant past, Stella Delphinus, she comes from that same time. If she yet lives, go easy on her. She comes from a time where there is no love between Hylians and Zora, as a matter of fact, the races were at war when I arrived. The actions the King of Hyrule at the time, Dromand, albeit intended for the greater good, sparked a Disharmony among the races. That being said, after speaking with Stella at the lake yesterday I am certain that she understands present circumstances and would gladly fight alongside us in the coming battle.”

Leaning against a tent post, Polaris crossed his arms and waited.

Summary:

Polaris agrees to come and then thanks both Horus and Lia and then rambles a bit about where he has been before vouching for Stella.

Jeskai and Efran collapsed onto the ground, unexpectedly exhausted despite being so early into their journey. Efran seemed shocked, having been so confident of their position. He felt ready to give himself back to the earth for good, no revival from Sirius, no more extended life for his soul. He felt in despair, having found his brother, only for them both to now die alone, without purpose.

He made one last attempt, focusing his mental energies, but his body would not rise. It was over.

(“The universe is not finished with you yet.”) Efran thought for a moment he was hearing a call from Bernard, or some heavenly force. But it was a different voice, one familiar. One that he had heard die only days before. It was impossible.

A shimmering image appeared before him. He looked to Jeskai, who seemed to have already passed, eyes shut and body unmoving.

“I’m sorry, Jeskai.” Efran said, his own eyes shutting.

And then, he was standing aside his brother again, on the shores of their old home in a far away land. And with them stood the lost Chiaria, Ithan. Jeskai was the first to raise inquiry.

“How are we here? Is this what our final death now is? That we get to pretend we’re home again? Or is this some prison?”

Ithan smiled at them both, and they felt calmed. He didn’t need to speak a word, and they knew the answer was something they wanted. They could still help.

“Your bodies, as you know now, are reconstructions. Or were, they’ve already begun to fade into the energy they are composed of. They were more like spiritual prisons than true corporeal forms. Though my own body was real, as I now exist here with you, it felt very much the same.”

Ithan spoke of the Kondoru’s shared past. Originally born from eggs tampered with by Sirius, eggs which had been infused with a tiny piece of Ithan’s soul, and of Lia’s. The Zora’s were telepathic creations, born into the world, with nature the mother, and science the father. But when they had originally died, Sirius was only able to grant them temporary vessels, constantly repairing and renewing them. Jeskai and Kondoru had been at the end of their vessels timespan, but their souls were still very much intact.

“We were supposed to find Lia.” Efran lamented. “We were supposed to help her.”

Ithan turned, raising an arm, and the line of forest behind them twisted and warped into a vision of Hidden Kakariko. In it stood the light warriors, Lia among them.

“She awaits our help still. We cannot fight in battle, but our power is as full as ever, if not more so. This place we are in now, it’s like a psychic background, an unlimited source of power, and a place where the telepathic can go to rest. Our destiny is not yet complete. It won’t be long now.” Ithan waved another arm and the image turned to that of battle, of battles past and of glimpses of the future. “The final assault of the Twili approaches, and we will be there to support them all.”

Summary: Turns out that Jeskai and Efran were not fated to reach the light group. Their bodies have died and their souls have joined Ithan’s in a place beyond the physical world. From there they are able to lend their power to Lia, having become the source of her newfound body.

“I should be able to retrieve the Blessing from Ordon. The Forest is like my own back yard so it shouldn’t take me long,” Ayala said, speaking up for the first time. “Though, if anyone else is coming with me we’ll have to leave now. I’m not sure we’d be able to make it there and back and still have time to forge the sword before night fall.

“Oh, well maybe if Kokage will run it back. But I think he’s being weird again.” She wondered to herself aloud.

Without a word Seishi got up, pushed passed Polaris who’d gotten too close to him for comfort and headed for the exit.

“Something you need to take care?” Phoenix asked.

“I’ve got to prep our defense. I think I can buy you all a few hours. Maybe until dawn if we’re lucky, assuming there’s enough lamp oil lying around this place.” Seishi was just about to walk out when he suddenly stopped much to everyone’s confusion. Everyone stared at him expecting him to say something else, but he just stood there trying to keep his fist from shaking.

Finally, no longer able to hold himself back, he walked towards Polaris and punched him in the face hard enough to knock the Zora on his ass. “You know all this talk about that Grem prick using the souls of the dead, it reminded me these other fallen soldiers I know, and they just wouldn’t be able rest if a just let you slide for what you did. Granted I’m letting you off easy, but I suppose they’ll be fine with just this much, assuming you manage to win this war. Of course is you lose, well screw it, if you lose I’ll probably be dead too.” He walk away to leave not bothering to help Polaris up but also holding back from spitting on him. “This meetings gone on long enough. Hurry up and go make that damned sword.”

Phoenix let out an exasperated sigh “I suppose that was the we could have hoped for.”

Summary:
Ayala volunteers to get the Ordon Blessing. Seishi declares he’ll buy everyone some extra time. He then has a mature friendly chat with Polaris where he brings up the grievances he has about the Great War and all the family and friends he lost during it. They come to an understanding and Seishi departs after giving his fellow Light Warriors and encouraging send off to their mission.

Grem let his gaze slide, oily, over the kneeling trespasser and his sword. With slow movements he leaned forward, reached and took the proffered weapon. He freed the blade some scant inches from its sheath and inspected the blade, making show of contemplation over the man's offer.

Then he slammed the blade back home and laid it back to rest on out-stretched palms.

"Treasure hunter? Perhaps there is some truth to that. Perhaps." Grem drummed fingertips on the arm of his seat. "But in this, you will be killer only, Oh Mercenary. I think, perhaps, such charge would please your constitution all the better."

He gestured, somewhat flippantly, with a flick of his hand to the door, and the north. "Go, then. The army moves, in the fields to the north, to the Hylian's final bastion, under command of my second-in-command, Count Ryssdal. Join them. Simeon will make use of you in the assault. Keep what paltry loot pleases you from the conquest of these vulgar creatures."

He plucked a small, but recognizable, token from the arm-table beside his throne, and tossed it to the floor. "Show this to Count Ryssdal to prove your sincerity in this charge. He will recognize it."

The knuckles of is left hand stroked the haft of his grand war-axe, leaning on a post to his side. "Now go, and pray to whatever deities hold sway on you that I never see you again, Treasure Hunter."

Summary: Grem accepts Taden's offer, barely. He send Taden to join Simeon and the Twili Army in their assault on Hisden Kakariko, also giving Taden a recognizable token to prove his loyalty. Any supernatural effects of said token, if they even exist at all, I leave to Chris to make up, if he so desires. (It wouldn't be much, more a simple prestidigitation than an actual power-up.)

A chill wind assaulted the tent, rattling the flaps and making those inside tense and uncomfortable. Polaris was back on his feet and the temperature continued to fall. Looking over his shoulder to Phoenix, the last of this member of High Commands words still fogging the air, "This is the part where, in years past, I would advise you to keep your dog on his leash.” Polaris laughed mirthlessly. As he turned to face the retreating Paladin, a wave of red ice, roiling and licking like so many tongues of flame, issued forth from where he and stood struck Seishi between the shoulder blades, not hard enough to knock him to the ground. Just enough to make him stumble. To get his attention.

As Seishi paused, still not turning around, Polaris finished his thought, ”But not anymore. I’ve grown a fondness for putting them down.”

With an audible snap Winters Tide was in Polaris’ frigid grasp, leaping from the aether at its masters beckon call. The paisley glow of the Dusk taint shone from Polaris’ eyes, the General blinked once. Twice. Suppressing the call from the other side of Perdition, Polaris snarled,